"Do we owe these happy reforms to you?" asked Cavanagh, admiring Virginia's neat dress and glowing cheeks.
"Partly," she answered. "I was desperate. I had to do something, so I took to ordering people around."
"I understand," he said. "Won't you sit at our table again?"
"Please do," said Redfield. "I want to talk with you."
She took a seat--a little hesitantly. "You see, I studied Domestic Science at school, and I've never had a chance to apply it before."
"Here's your opportunity," Redfield assured her. "My respect for the science of domestics is growing--I marvel to think what another week will bring forth. I think I'll have to come down again just to observe the improvement in the place."
"It can't last," Lize interjected. "She'll catch the Western habits--she'll sag, same as we all do."
"No she won't," declared Ross, with intent to encourage her. "If you give her a free hand, I predict she'll make your place the wonder and boast of the county-side."
"When do you go back to the mountains?" Lee Virginia asked, a little later.
"Immediately after my luncheon," he replied.
She experienced a pang of regret, and could not help showing it a little. "Your talk helped me," she said; "I've decided to stay, and be of use to my mother."
Redfield overheard this, and turned toward her.
"This is a rough school for you, Lee Virginia, and I should dislike seeing you settle down to it for life: but it can't hurt you if you are what I think you are. Nothing can soil or mar the mind that wills for good. I want Mrs. Redfield to know you; I'm sure her advice will be helpful. I hope you'll come up and see us if you decide to settle in Sulphur--or if you don't."
"I should like to do so," she said, touched by the tone as well as by the words of his invitation.
"Redfield's house is one of the few completely civilized homes in the State," put in Cavanagh. "When I get so weary of cuss-words and poaching and graft that I can't live without killing some one, I go down to Elk Lodge and smoke and read the Supervisor's London and Paris weeklies and recover my tone."
Redfield smiled. "When I get weak-kneed or careless in the service and feel my self-respect slipping away, I go up to Ross's cabin and talk with a man who represents the impersonal, even-handed justice of the Federal law."