At Captain MacDonnell's home, Frank inquired for the housekeeper. Mrs.

Naxie was still in charge and she and Frank were old friends. She had been with Captain MacDonnell's uncle years before when he and Bryan were both little boys.

Lord Kent was not ashamed to reveal his anxiety to Mrs. Naxie, and she at least had a little information for him, the first he had secured.

"Yes, Lady Kent had stopped by a little before tea time and had seemed tired. She explained that she had eaten no lunch, but enjoyed her tea, and then started away again. Mrs. Naxie was under the impression she intended going directly home.

"There was nothing more for him to do but to go home also," Frank then concluded. If Jack had not returned and nothing was known of her, he must throw away his scruples and ask for help.

It was now fully night and the sky filled with high, sweet stars.

Although he yearned to be at home at once, still Frank searched all the roads, stared behind the tall hedges, and now and then in the darkness called his wife's name. Nevertheless he continued to a.s.sure himself that he was behaving like a fool and there was no real reason for him to feel so alarmed. He had always been ridiculously nervous about Jack and always before now she had laughed at him.

It was not until he had almost reached the beginning of his own land that Frank was finally honest with himself. He had fought against confessing the fact that he was to blame every moment since he first began to grow uneasy about Jack. Had they been good friends these past few weeks he knew he would not have been half so miserable. Whether he had been right or wrong, he had realized that Jack had been anxious to make peace and he had repulsed her. He would wait for no comfortable opportunity now, as soon as he found his wife, they must be reconciled.

Near the edge of Kent Park, where the land dipped, there was a small stream, deep in some places, and yet hardly to be dignified by the t.i.tle of river.

Yielding to an impulse Frank got off his horse here and walked slowly along the bank. The stream was so narrow he could see almost equally well on the farther side.

The trees and underbrush made shadows on the surface where the water was deepest.

Suddenly Frank thought he saw one of the slender, young birches move a step toward him. The next he heard Jack's voice say:

"Frank, is that you?"

Then she came slowly toward him.

The strange fact was that she did not appear surprised, nor did she begin by offering any explanation of her own strange behavior, nor why she should be found at such an hour in such a place.

"Sit down for a little while will you please, Frank? The ground is not particularly damp in some places, I have been sitting here a long time."

Frank made no reply except to do what she liked. He knew that something had happened which was of tremendous seriousness to Jack. If that were true, then whatever it was, was equally so to him.

"You are not ill, are you, dear?" he inquired, after he had let go his bridle and taken a seat beside his wife. His horse would only wander about near by.

Jack shook her head.

"I was dizzy and very tired a little while ago, I don't know just how long. I sat down here to rest and fell asleep for a time. I am quite all right now." And indeed Jack was now speaking in a natural voice. One must remember it was not so unusual for her, as it would be with most other girls and women, to take her problems outdoors when she wished to solve them.

"There is something I want to say to you, Frank. I have been making up my mind to speak of it for some time. This afternoon I knew I had to decide. I went off for a long walk and now I have decided."

Jack was sitting very still a few feet away from her husband. He now moved over and put his arm about her, but though she made no movement to resent it, she showed no sign of pleasure or of yielding.

"I want to go home, Frank?" she continued.

And for an instant believing she meant Kent House, Frank started to rise. The next he understood his mistake.

"I mean I want to go back to the Rainbow ranch to see Jim and Ruth and Jean, but Jim most of all," she added, this time with a little break in her usually steady voice.

"Please don't answer, Frank, until I have explained to you a little better. I know it seems horrid to leave you alone and to take the babies away, when you are so worn out with your work and so sad over all the wretched tragedy of the war. You will miss the babies, even if you will not particularly miss me. Still I'll have to go, Frank. I can't live on with you not forgiving, not caring for me any more. I won't stay long unless you wish it and I'll come back whenever you send for me. But I must go; it has seemed to me lately as if I could not breathe."

Jack turned her face directly to her husband, and although it was too dark to see it distinctly, he could catch the dim outline.

"You see until lately I never dreamed that when things came to a crisis, to a question of right, to a question of my judgment, or my conscience, you would not be willing to let me do as I decided and thought best. I knew you liked me to follow your way in little things and I never minded most times. Often I was glad to do as you wished and when I didn't agree to your way, I never considered the fact seriously one way or the other.

But lately I have seen that if we go on living together, I have got to be a coward, a kind of traitor to myself by always appearing to agree with you, or else live with you and have you angry and dissatisfied with me. I cannot bear either. Marriage does not mean that to me, Frank. I have to get away for a little while to see if I can find out what I should do."

There was no sign of anger in Jack's manner, if she had been feeling angry lately, and of course she had being perfectly human, her anger had disappeared tonight during the long hours she had been thinking things out alone.

Sitting beside his wife, suddenly as she finished speaking Frank recalled something Frieda had lately said to him. Perhaps Frieda had more brains than her family and friends realized. However, what she had said was that whenever she was angry or wounded, her sister Jack was apt to go off to herself and then do something unexpected.

Surely his wife's request tonight was wholly unexpected.

But Frank only answered, not revealing what he felt, nor what he intended.

"I think this is a pretty severe punishment, Jack, if you think I am unfair. But you must let me take you home to Kent House now; Olive and Frieda are both dreadfully worried to know what has become of you."

CHAPTER XIV

PROFESSOR AND PROFESSORESS

WHEN it was finally decided that Jack was to go home to the Rainbow ranch with her babies and Olive and Frieda for a visit, Frieda strenuously objected. No reason was given her by her sister except the ordinary one, that Jack wished to get away from the sad atmosphere of a country at war and also to see her family.

"Certainly you don't show much consideration for Frank," Frieda protested when she first heard the news. "It seems to me that England is _his_ country and he has a good deal more work to do and goes through a lot more than you do, Jacqueline Ralston. I never could make up my mind to leave my husband under such circ.u.mstances."

Then although Jack flinched, she did not make the reply she might so obviously have made.

However, Frieda went on just as if she had.

"I know what you are thinking of, but it was quite different with Henry and me. He did not need me, he thought I was a b.u.t.terfly and my wishing to go out and dance and do exciting things disturbed his work. He didn't allow me to go with other people because he thought it was his _duty_ to look after me. He said so, said I was too young to be expected to take care of myself. He wasn't a bit jealous like Frank, I shouldn't have minded a jealous husband. If I said he was jealous, I was only pretending because I wanted to seem interesting."

"Frank jealous?" Jack laughed. "You are too silly, Frieda."

Nevertheless Frieda tossed her yellow head, but also flushed a little, having said more than she intended. If Frank did not know he was jealous of Captain MacDonnell and Jack was also unaware how much this had unconsciously influenced his decision concerning his friend's request, it was not her place to tell them.

"Just the same you'll be sorry and ashamed of yourself some day, Jack Ralston. You need not pretend anything to me, I understand the present situation perfectly. Frank was rather horrid to you and he ought not to be allowed to be a bully, but you could really twist him around your finger if you tried. You can now at any rate because he adores you. And Frank is pretty nice you know, most women would be glad to have him.

After all he has a t.i.tle and money, and men are going to be scarce when this war is over."

"Frieda!" Jack exclaimed in such a tone of disgust that Frieda departed hastily, if still gracefully, out of her sister's room.

However she stopped at the door.

"You know it will look perfectly absurd for us both to go back home without husbands," Frieda tossed out. "I didn't mind half so much when Frank was around and there was at least one man in our family. But of course it looks now as if we had something the matter with us, horrid dispositions, so that no man could make up his mind to live with us."

This time Jack betrayed herself a little more by showing anger.

"You have no right to a.s.sume I am behaving as you did, Frieda, because I want to go to the old ranch for a time. Frank has given me his consent, I've no idea of running away."