He was carefully giving her the lead, as he would have explained it, and was merely following suit until he got a chance to trump; but he was beginning to have a discouraged feeling that the game was hers, and that he might as well lay down his hand and be done with it.

Which, when he brought the simile back to practical affairs, meant that he was thinking seriously of leaving the ranch and the country just as soon as Mason returned.
He was thinking of trying the Argentine Republic for awhile, if he could sell the land which he had rashly bought while he was getting rid of his inheritance.
She did not offer any excuse for the request, as most women would have done.

Neither did she thank him, with lips or with eyes, for his ready consent.

She seemed distrait--preoccupied, as if she, also, were considering some weighty question.
Ford pushed back his chair, watching her furtively.

She rose with Kate, and glanced toward the window.
"I suppose I shall need my heaviest sweater," she remarked practically, and as if the whole affair were too commonplace for discussion.