BLANCHE
definite to name, was darted at him and withdrawn. She did not offer her hand, but bent her head quite in the manner of the city girl to acknowledge her mother's introduction. This consisted only of two words: "My daughter," and left Carron as uninformed as before.
"Father, I got the stage," she said, sitting down in the place beside Carron.
The scholar, who had continued his book without having looked at his daughter, now paused again, his eyes still glued to the page. "U-m-m?" he said.
"I was early for it," she went on. "I rode down as far as 'the notch' before I met it."
Carron looked at her with anxiety. "Miss Rader, I hope it wasn't my letter that you have been taking trouble about?"
She stretched a long throat with a quick inquiring turn of the head at him. "Yes—why not?"
"Of course I would have taken it myself. From what Mr. Rader said, I supposed he had a boy he could send."
"Oh, George! But with errands you can't be sure of him. It was nothing of a ride. I liked it."
"I'm very much in your debt," Carron gratefully declared himself. "It was an important letter. I promise to run all your errands for you as long as I am here."
63
