A flash of doubt of the infallibility of Kate's method with men crossed her
mind. She remembered suddenly the soft brown eyes of the younger of the two
men in the park and wondered what was back of the eyes. Perhaps after all,
had she been alone with him, the man might have had something to say quite
as much to the point as the things she and Kate had been saying to each
other. "Kate made the men look like fools, but after all she wasn't very
fair," she thought as she went into the house.
* * * * *
Clara was in Bidwell for a month before she realized what a change had
taken place in the life of her home town. On the farm things went on very
much as always, except that her father was very seldom there. He had gone
deeply into the project of manufacturing and selling corn-cutting machines
with Steve Hunter, and attended to much of the selling of the output of the
factory. Almost every month he went on trips to cities of the West. Even
when he was in Bidwell, he had got into the habit of staying at the town
hotel for the night. "It's too much trouble to be always running back and
forth," he explained to Jim Priest, whom he had put in charge of the farm
work. He swaggered before the old man who for so many years had been almost
like a partner in his smaller activities. "Well, I wouldn't like to have
anything said, but I think it just as well to have an eye on what's going
on," he declared.
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