Mr. Brewster laughed at this, and Eleanor then said: "Guess I'll be going back, now, Mr. Brewster. I wanted to know your opinion about John and the roses."
"Wait, Nolla. Have you any answer to it yourself?"
"U--m, yes--I have a sort of a suspicion. But it isn't fair to anyone to even hint at it. So don't ask me."
"This much you might answer, however, seeing that Ah'm Polly's father and the most concerned in the beaux she has. Do you fancy it might have been your brother Pete?"
"_Pete!_" The very tone made Mr. Brewster smile as he saw that Eleanor had never thought of him. "Anyway, Pete and Poll hardly know each other."
"Ah wonder if it could have been Paul Stewart--he seemed dreadfully attentive to her that time when we-all were visiting you-all in New York." Mr. Brewster watched Eleanor shrewdly.
"I just guess it _wasn't_ Paul! He sent me a lovely card for a valentine; and while we were home in Chicago, I asked him about flowers. He never thought to wire a florist about sending me any flowers, he said. So I know Paul hadn't anything to do with it."
"Ah! Well, Nolla, now we know who he was, eh?" laughed Sam Brewster, tweaking Eleanor's ear and hastening away to the barns.
Eleanor stood watching him. Then she laughed softly: "He sure did put one over on me, that time!"
As she walked slowly back to the ranch-house she soliloquized to herself. "That's just who it was. Gee! It's almost as fine as having a romance of my very own. But Polly doesn't want it so.
"All the same, when John and Tom come down here, I'm going to tease Tom about the wonderful roses Polly's brother sent her. Then we'll see what we'll see!"
Eleanor could keep her own counsel as well as Sam Brewster, but the two exchanged wise looks, now and then, when no one was watching. Still, never a word was said again on the rose subject.
A week after the two girls got home, the others in the party came down from Denver. Mrs. Stewart was to be Mrs. Brewster's guest that Summer, Eleanor was Polly's, and Anne said she was John's visitor. Then Tom Latimer laughed and said: "I'll have to be Mr. Brewster's pal."
"I can promise you that you won't have your head turned by any pretty school-girl, Tom, if you are _my_ guest," chuckled Sam Brewster.