it isn't as if he were stuck for a majordomo.
Manuel has turned against me from pure jealousy. He opened his heart,
one night when we were alone together, and told me that when Carlos
Pacorra went--and Manuel said the patron would not keep him long, for
his insolence--he, Manuel, would be majordomo. He's mad as the deuce,
and I don't blame him; and he's a good man for the place; the vaqueros
like him."

"You say he's quit?"

"Yes. He got pretty nasty, and the don has gone to pay him off."

"Well, what good would it do for you to turn down the offer, then?
Manuel wouldn't get it, would he?"

"No-o, he wouldn't."

"Well, then--oh, thunder! Something ought to be done for that
ingrowing modesty of yours! Dade, if you pass up that place,
I'll--I'll swear you're crazy. I know you like it, here. You worked
hard enough to convert me to that belief!"

A sudden thought made him draw a long breath; he reached out and
caught Dade by both shoulders.

"Say, you can't fool me a little bit! You're backing up because you're
afraid I may be jealous or something. You're afraid you're standing
in my light. Darn you, I've had enough of that blamed unselfishness
of yours, old man." The endearing smile lighted his face then and his
eyes. "You go ahead and take the job, Dade. I don't want it. I'll be
more than content to have you boss me around." He hesitated, looking
at the other a bit wistfully. "Of course, you know that if you go, old
boy, I'll go with you. But--" The look he sent towards Teresita,
who appeared definitely upon the porch and stood waiting openly and
impatiently, amply finished the sentence.

Dade's eyes followed Jack's understandingly, and the thing he had
meant to do seemed all at once contemptible, selfish, and weak. He had
meant to leave and take Jack with him, because it hurt him mightily to
see those two falling in love with each other. The trouble his staying
might bring to Don Andres was nothing more nor less than a subterfuge.
If Teresita's smiles had continued to be given to him as they had
been before Jack came, he told himself bitterly, he would never
have thought of going. And Jack thought he hesitated from pure
unselfishness! The fingers that groped mechanically for his tobacco,
though he had no intention of smoking just then, trembled noticeably.

"All right," he said quietly. "I'll stay, then." And a moment after:
"Go ask her if she wants to ride Surry. I promised her she could, next
time she rode.