"Please don't make any noise," she admonished, "Peace is ill."
Jack ran up swiftly to where her sister was standing.
"How long has she been ill and why haven't you let me know?"
With a slight gesture of nervous irritability the younger of the two sisters drew away.
"Since yesterday, but not seriously so until to-day."
"Then why didn't you let me hear this morning? No member of my family has been near me all day. Do the others know?"
"Yes, but I thought it best not to disturb _you_ with the news. You are fond of Peace, I suppose, even if you do prefer a public career to the affection of your family. I knew, of course, that you were going somewhere this afternoon to address an audience and I thought you would wish not to have anything interfere even mentally with your speech."
"I see," Jack answered, with her usual gentleness and good temper. She was wounded, but Frieda's attitude toward her had been like this for some time, and to-night, when she appreciated that her sister was especially troubled, was scarcely the moment to refer to their differences. "Of course I should have preferred to know. Is Peace very ill?"
"No, not at present, but I am uneasy and we have sent for a nurse."
"Won't you let some of the other little girls come down to the lodge and stay with me?"
"No, they have gone to Olive. Jean has gone with them. You know Olive and Captain MacDonnell have an extra sleeping tent and I thought it best you should not be annoyed by them either."
This time Jack was unable wholly to restrain herself.
"Why should I have been annoyed, Frieda? I am not so impossible a person, am I? And the work I have been trying to do lately, even if you do disapprove of it, has not turned me into an ogre. But I won't worry you to-night, although I do believe, Frieda, you really intend to be unkind. Has Jim come back? I have not seen him for several days and if he is at home and not busy I thought perhaps he would walk back to the lodge with me."
Never in her life from the time she was a small girl had Frieda accepted reproof in an humble spirit, except under a few and very exceptional circumstances. The truth was that she had been spoiled all her days, first because she was the youngest of the four Rainbow ranch girls, her mother having died when she was little more than a baby, and later by her husband, who was a good deal her senior.