85 Horse Heaven Hill by Zane Grey

85 Horse Heaven Hill by Zane Grey

Author:Zane Grey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fiction, western, horses
Publisher: Distributed Proofreaders Canada
Published: 1959-06-15T05:00:00+00:00


ELEVEN

“Look here, Stan. What do you care if he does?” demanded Marigold.

Stanley, to his chagrin, had spoken his thought aloud, anent his suspicion that Coil Bruce, the conceited cowpuncher, was making love to Lark. Marigold had turned upon him the battery of two penetrating blue eyes. He had to face them. He had to look innocent when he was nothing of the kind. And this situation, which had grown imperceptibly sharper every day for some time, was getting on Stanley’s nerves.

“It’d be a fine thing if he did, provided Lark fell in love with him,” went on Marigold. She spoke highly of Coil’s family and his prospects.

“Bunk!” exploded Stanley. “Coil may be what you women call a good catch. But not for Lark Burrell.”

“Why not for her?” asked his fiancée curiously.

“He—I—oh, hell! . . . Would you consider Coil for yourself?”

“For a husband? Heavens! You are getting beyond me, Stan.”

“Lark is as good as you, or any of your friends,” protested Stanley, and it was on his tongue that she was a great deal better.

“If you mean innocence and all that stuff, she is,” returned Marigold scornfully. “But Lark is a country-bred girl and would make the right kind of wife for someone like Coil.”

Not to agree with Marigold here was a tactless thing to do, but it was impossible, wherefore Stanley kept silent.

“Stan, are you falling in love with this—this young goddess in blue jeans?” asked Marigold incredulously.

“No,” retorted Stanley, sure of his veracity, for the catastrophe was not of the present tense. It had happened.

“Well, you talk damn funny,” rejoined Marigold seriously. “If you were at all like any of the other men I know, I’d think you a liar. As it is, all I can say is that you seem rather romantically and absurdly sentimental about my cousin.”

“I daresay. You and your dear friends have single-track minds,” replied Stanley with sarcasm. “The pursuit of pleasure! But thank God I’ve more in my head than that. It hasn’t occurred to you that Lark is lonelier here than she could have been down in Idaho, where there wasn’t anybody. She can’t adapt herself to your crowd. She doesn’t know how. On the other hand you ought not lay her open to the advances of cowboys.”

“So you have become a champion of unsophisticated maidenhood?” inquired Marigold satirically.

“I always was. However, I can’t say that you gave me any exercise for my old-fashioned peculiarity.”

“Stanley, things are going wrong between us,” she answered poignantly.

“No wonder. You’ve been going your own way.”

“That doesn’t mean it’s hopeless.”

“No, Marigold. But you’d better pay some attention to my feelings.”

She was silenced, which was an unusual state for Marigold Wade.

“Ride along, darling. I’ll wait to have a word with Coil and Lark,” Stanley said.

“Very well—darling. But remember what I said: You’re riding for a fall,” she flung at him, and rode on.

Stanley waited for Lark to come up. Coil had left her to ride up the slope toward the back of the camp. Stanley had it in mind to lecture Lark, but one glance at her distressed face softened as well as frightened him.



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