A Business Proposition

Mid-August saw them on their way to Chicago. Kate had taken care
of Mrs. Jardine a few days while Jennie Weeks went home to see her
mother and arrange for her new work. She had no intention of
going back to school teaching. She preferred to brush Mrs.
Jardine's hair, button her shoes, write her letters, and read to
her.

In a month, Jennie had grown so deft at her work and made herself
so appreciated, that she was practically indispensable to the
elderly woman, and therefore the greatest comfort to John.
Immediately he saw that his mother was properly cared for,
sympathetically and even lovingly, he made it his business to
smooth Jennie's path in every way possible. In turn she studied
him, and in many ways made herself useful to him. Often she
looked at him with large and speculative eyes as he sat reading
letters, or papers, or smoking.

The world was all right with Kate when they crossed the sand dunes
as they neared the city. She was sorry about the situation in her
home, but she smiled sardonically as she thought how soon her
father would forget his anger when he heard about the city home
and the kind of farm she could have, merely by consenting to take
it. She was that sure of John Jardine; yet he had not asked her
to marry him. He had seemed on the verge of it a dozen times, and
then had paused as if better judgment told him it would be wise to
wait a little longer. Now Kate had concluded that there was a
definite thing he might be waiting for, since that talk about
land.