ellar Bahrr's
good-will than to start her tongue.

York Macpherson and Junius Brutus Ponk both felt sure that Stellar had
really stirred up the Lenwells, for whom she was constantly sewing; and,
besides, a distant relative of theirs had married into the Bahrr family
back where Stellar came from, "which must have been the Ark," Ponk
declared, "and the other one of the pair died of seasickness." Anyhow,
the local school row became the local town row, and it was a very real
and bitter row.

In these days of little foxes that were threatening the whole vineyard,
Jerry turned more and more to Joe Thomson. All of New Eden was tied up
in the fuss, took sides, and talked it, except the Macphersons and a few
of their friends, and they talked it without taking sides because the
thing was in the air constantly. Jerry could not find even in "Castle
Cluny" a refuge from what was uninteresting to her and thoroughly
distasteful in itself. Ponk, being by nature a rabid little game-cock,
was full of the thing, and was no more companionable than the
Macphersons. But when the quiet ranchman came up from the lower Sage
Brush country, his dark eyes glowing with pleasure and his poised mind
unbiased by neighborhood failings, he brought the breath of sweet clover
with his coming. When Jerry came home from their long rides
up-stream--they never rode toward the blowout region--she felt as if she
had a new grip on life and energy and ambition for her work. Joe was
becoming, moreover, the best of entertainers, and the comradeship was
the one thing Jerry had learned to prize most in her new life in the
Middle West.

When the spring had slipped into early May Joe's visits grew less
frequent, on account of his spring work. And once or twice he came to
town and hurried away without even seeing Jerry. It comforted her
greatly--she did not ask herself why--that he did drop a note into the
post-office for her, telling her he was in town and regretting that he
must hurry out without calling.

It was during this time that Thelma Ekblad came up to New Eden to do
some extensive shopping and spend a week with the Macphersons. There
were other guests at "Castle Cluny," and Thelma and Jerry shared the
same room.

Back in "Eden" the heir apparent would never have dreamed of sharing
anything with a Winnowoc grub. How times change us! Or do we change
them?

Thelma was sunny-natured, spotlessly neat in her dress, and altogether
vastly more companionable t