fully apperceive the glories and possibilities of this estate and who therefore might be fairly adjudged as lost in ignorance. They did not say so; nor argue about it. They just felt it, which made George Scott want to spank them, but which merely caused everybody else to laugh in a sympathetic fashion. Not that they knew—or cared.
They were good to the Colonel, though. The innocent caller, or even passer-by, who occupied as much as five minutes of the valued leisure that they might have been devoting to each other, was often bewildered by evidences of suppressed impatience over his superfluous existence. You see, of the day, counting in sleep and occasional necessary separate tasks, but including of course all ranch work which could just as well as not be done in company, they could count on only about twelve hours a day together. As they had been closely associated only about four years, and as they could not expect to live more then fifty or sixty years more, it can readily be seen that outsiders who did not promptly get down to business and say what they had to say and then get out were a positive blight. Daphne, as of the social sex, tried to be polite in a strained sort of fashion; but Ken merely glowered.
All this did not apply to the Colonel. They followed the old man around every minute he would let them; and they were constantly popping in to see what they could do. The Colonel, to outside appearance, was the same as ever. His step had lost none of its spring, his figure none of its erectness, his kind old face none of its benevolent interest in those about him. He spoke of Allie frequently, and without the embarrassment of surface grief. People meeting him casually driving down Main Street in Arguello saw no difference in him. He was the same old Colonel.
But the ranch people knew. From the moment Allie left him the Colonel lost either his interest in or his grasp of details. Old Manuelo gave up consulting him after a while, and came to Kenneth or Brainerd to determine what to do. Details seemed to perplex, almost to irritate him. His brow cleared and his smile returned only when he had disposed of them in his usual fashion:
