It was necessary for his plans that this should be kept a secret at present, and this was no easy thing for his habitually frank and open nature.

He had once mentioned that he had met Jim at the settlement, but the information was received with such indifference by Susy, and such marked disfavor by Mrs.Peyton, that he said no more.

He accompanied Peyton in his rides around the rancho, fully possessed himself of the details of its boundaries, the debatable lands held by the enemy, and listened with beating pulses, but a hushed tongue, to his host's ill-concealed misgivings.
"You see, Clarence, that lower terrace ?" he said, pointing to a far-reaching longitudinal plain beyond the corral; "it extends from my corral to Fair Plains.

That is claimed by the sisters' title, and, as things appear to be going, if a division of the land is made it will be theirs.

It's bad enough to have this best grazing land lying just on the flanks of the corral held by these rascals at an absurd prohibitory price, but I am afraid that it may be made to mean something even worse.
According to the old surveys, these terraces on different levels were the natural divisions of the property,--one heir or his tenant taking one, and another taking another,--an easy distinction that saved the necessity of boundary fencing or monuments, and gave no trouble to people who were either kinsmen or lived in lazy patriarchal concord.
That is the form of division they are trying to reestablish now.