"Ah!" she said; "for that I could forgive you many a failure. Still, you must go back and look after Jimmy. We shall not go away until we hear what you have done."
Jordan reluctantly turned away, and, as it happened, met Jimmy coming out of the auction-room with perfect satisfaction in his face.
"I feel that I owe you a good deal. In fact, I'm afraid I can't express my gratitude as I ought," he said. "Merril's man has got her, but I have a clear thousand dollars to hand over to my father. Still, there's something that puzzles me. What brought Forster here?"
"Of course!" said Jordan dryly. "No doubt, because she is your sister, you don't credit her with any useful capacity."
"Eleanor is clever," said Jimmy reflectively. "Still, there are subjects girls know nothing about--and, anyway, there was Mrs. Forster's attitude to consider. It's hardly in human nature that she should be pleased to see her husband staking his money to please her children's teacher."
"Exactly! That is what made the thing cleverer. She has Mrs. Forster's good-will too."
"Then," said Jimmy decisively, "she must be a very kindly lady."
"Or your sister a very capable young woman. You seem to find it a little difficult to recognize that."
Jimmy dismissed the subject with a little gesture. "Well," he said, "I'm almost bewildered. The thing was so simple. Why didn't Merril think of it?"
"I have no doubt he did. Still, you saw what the little man has to expect if he makes a bid. On thinking it over, it seems to me that Merril trusted to my broker. He figured I'd back down once I realized that he knew my game and was a match for me. There are big men like him who live by bluff, and everybody makes way for them, but they're apt to show themselves very much the same as other people when you face them resolutely. It's just like putting a pin in a bubble."
Then Forster joined them while his wife and Eleanor came out of the store, and a few minutes later the girl and Jordan walked behind the other three as they turned toward the hotel where the wagon had been sent. Eleanor smiled at her companion.
"We are indebted to you, after all," she said, and there was a faint but suggestive something in her voice which satisfied Jordan.