At last Jean tumbled into her big, four-posted bed; but even then she could not go at once to sleep. What a delicate mission she had taken upon herself and how ever was she to perform it? For Olive must never suspect any possible motive behind her questioning.
JEAN BRUCE'S task did not prove any simpler than she had anticipated. For one thing, events at the castle left little time for leisure or for making individual plans of one's own. Almost every hour there were visits from the neighbors of surrounding country estates, calls to be returned, riding parties, dinners and dances. For the Kents seemed determined to give Ruth and the Ranch girls as agreeable an impression as possible of English country life. And the time was short, since Ruth and Jim were soon to be married.
Undoubtedly Frank's family had taken a decided fancy to his American friends, but if one of the number was a greater favorite than the others, assuredly it was Jim Colter.
At first Jim had strenuously resented becoming a visitor at Kent Castle. The idea of having to hobnob with titles, as he put it, was extremely distasteful. He was sure that he would turn out to be an embarrassment to Ruth and the girls, and that Frank would be sorry for having invited him. Nevertheless, when Ruth, and therefore the four Ranch girls, positively refused to leave without him, Jim was compelled to give in. And now, when there was no opportunity for the overseer of the Rainbow ranch to be with Ruth, he and Lord Kent were inseparable. The two men were as unlike as any two extremes could be, and yet they were alike in that each man was absolutely himself. Lord Kent represented all that money, education and a high position can do; Jim only what good sense, a strong heart and energy can accomplish. Yet so far had Jim Colter learned to forgive Lord and Lady Kent, that actually he had consented that his marriage to Ruth take place from their home and that the ceremony be performed at the little English church nearby. He and Ruth had both been unwilling to delay their wedding until their return home and had also objected to the strangeness of a wedding in London. So now everything had been delightfully arranged. They were to be married at high noon with the Ranch girls as their attendants and only a few intimate friends of their host and hostess present.