Beatrice remembered how she had come to grief even on the lower, easier slope, and shuddered at the thought of the difficulties higher up.
“Yet I should like to climb it,” she thought. The very impossibility of the idea made it seem all the more inviting.
They sat there even after they were dry, but finally Hester, with a sigh, declared they must go.
“It has been such a pleasant day,” she said, “I hate to have it end. We—we aren’t very happy at home, just now, Roddy and I.”
“What!” exclaimed Nancy. “What can be the matter?”
“I don’t know,” Hester answered hopelessly. “I really brought you here so that we could talk about it, but it has been so hard to speak that I haven’t said anything, and now it is time to go home. Long ago Roddy used to be like this sometimes. He would look worried and troubled for days and at last would go off, camping in the hills, hunting and fishing and thinking things out, and he would come home quite cheerful again. That was long, long past; I had almost forgotten it, but now it has all come back again. He is miserable and restless, and troubled over something I can’t understand. Just last night he asked me the strangest thing. He wanted to know if I could be happy in some other place if he decided not to live here any longer. And I had thought he loved Gray Cloud Mountain best of any place in the world!”
If John Herrick did not tell her his secret, they had no right to do so. Such was the unspoken message that passed between the sisters as Nancy tried to offer comfort, with very little success.
“I suppose there is no use in talking of it,” said little Hester at last with a sigh. “Things may be better some time. Well, we must be going home. Climb down, and I will show you how to throw the diamond hitch on a packhorse.”
The ride home was less hilarious than their setting out had been, and Beatrice and Nancy went up the path to the cabin with no very light hearts. In the evening, however, they were made happy again by a visit from Dr. Minturn and his very good report of Aunt Anna.
“I could not ask for anything better,” he declared, fully as delighted as were they. The beaming warmth of his smile seemed to light the whole room.
“I have something to propose,” he went on. “Nancy here has come to be more of a rider than she was when I visited you before, and I have been wondering if she would go over the pass with me to-morrow and spend a few days with Miriam. Mrs. Minturn has asked me over and over again if she couldn’t learn to know both the girls, and this is a good chance. Beatrice can ride over to come back with her, since she should not go over the trail alone.”