I'll show you what I mean. It's all on a small scale for I have not the means nor the strength to do more. But the future of the country is in it. Some day they'll wake up. And then you'll see. If I were a young man like you, and I could command a little money, as I suppose you can, I'd certainly go in for ranching. There is no place on the globe with a better climate, with more beautiful surroundings, with more satisfying appeal. I know, for I have lived in many places. It is new, but that affords the satisfaction of being active in the building. And a small ranch intelligently conducted on new and experimental lines would have for me the intelligent interest of creating." He checked himself with a laugh. "I'm coming perilously close to offering advice after all," said he. "But to my mind there is no comparison between such a career and the 'big round suavity, the large, buttoned-up complacency of golden-bellied bankers.'"
"I'm mighty glad I found you in," said Kenneth, rising. "You've given me a lot to think about."
"Talking is one of the best things I do," observed Brainerd, "when I am sure of an understanding listener. I'm sorry Daffy isn't about. I can't imagine where she has disappeared to: her pony is in the corral."
As a matter of fact Daphne was in the next room keeping very quiet until the visitor should depart. She had no intention of being seen at this time, nor for several days yet. By the end of the period certain grown-up dresses would be finished. They were being made at the Peyton's by a little "sewing woman" who came in by the day. After the Boyd party it was as impossible that Daphne reassume her child's dresses and her pigtails as it would be for a butterfly to reënter its cocoon.
II
Dan Mitchell had read Patrick Boyd correctly. Hardly had the echoes of the ball died away before he began to look about him for something else to do. His investigatory habit of prowling up and down Main Street stood him in good stead here. To do him entire justice it must be conceded that he started on his external affairs in Arguello actuated solely by a
