d kept his promise, I could not have married
you."

Festing looked at her with surprise. In spite of her refinement, Helen
would now and then talk calmly about matters he shrank from mentioning.
But after the lead she had given him he could be frank.

"Well," he said, "I haven't forgiven him yet; I couldn't pretend
friendship with anybody who had slighted you. Besides, when I found out
how he had cheated me it was the worst moment of my life. I thought you
would never speak to me again because, through the fellow's treachery,
it was I who hurt you."

"You're very nice, Stephen," Helen replied, coloring. "But that's all
finished. Don't you like Bob's wife? I really don't want to meet her,
but one mustn't be a coward."

"You couldn't be a coward. Sadie has her virtues and is certainly much
too good for Bob, but I don't want her here for all that. Frankly, she's
not your sort, and she's meddlesome. I'm not afraid she'll make you
discontented, but I can't have a girl like that telling you how your
house ought to be run. Although you're a beginner, you manage very well,
and I'd object to improvements on somebody else's plan."

Helen smiled. "When you talk like that, you're charming; but we'll say
no more about it. You look tired. Are you sure you are not working too
hard? The last time Jasper came he seemed surprised when he saw the
ground you had broken. I imagined he thought you were trying to do too
much."

As she spoke she glanced at the wide belt of plowing that broke the
delicate green and silver of the grass. In the foreground, the rows of
clods shone with an oily gleam in the fading light. Farther off, the
rows converged and melted into a sweep of purple-brown that narrowed as
it crossed a distant rise. There were two other belts; one where white
grasses broke through the harrow-torn sod, and another flat and smooth
where the land-packer had rolled in the seed. All told of strenuous
effort in which sweating men and horses had been aided by tractor
machines.

"Jasper's conservative and I feel I ought to do as much as I can,"
Festing replied. "When you bought the place you rather put me on my
mettle."

Helen gave him a sharp glance. "I note that you spoke of it as my house
when you ought to have said ours. I don't like that, Stephen."

"It is yours. I let you buy it because it's value must go up and the
money's safe. I'm glad, of course, that you have comforts I couldn't
have given you, but it's my business