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We are delighted to announce that we have acquired a lovely old
copy of The Winning of Barbara Worth, by Harold Bell Wright, published in
1911. This bestselling novel became a classic
silent movie in 1926, starring Gary Cooper, Ronald Colman, and Vilma Banky.
The story is set in California
in the Old West, and the plot is a dramatic love triangle: a local cowboy and
an East Coast engineer compete for the hand of a wealthy rancher’s adopted
daughter.
Here is a scene from The Winning of Barbara Worth, compressed for
time, describing the engineer’s arrival in the rustic Western town and his first
impressions of the heroine of this timeless tale:
The Winning of Barbara Worth
After his noon-day meal, Willard Holmes, following the example of
others, sought the shade of the arcade in front of the hotel. Helping himself
to a chair and moving a little away from the general company, he sat enjoying
his cigar, musing on the novelty of his surroundings.
As he watched
the passing citizens in the street he recalled the scene from the windows of
his club at home—a famous club on a famous avenue.
That young
woman, for instance, with her khaki divided skirt, wide sombrero, fringed
gauntlets and the big western saddle coming there on a horse whose feet seemed
scarcely to touch the ground as he plunged and pranced impatiently along,
springing side-wise, with arched neck and pointed ears.
What a sensation she would create at home! By
Jove! but she could ride, though. He watched with admiring eyes the strong,
graceful figure that sat the high-strung, uncertain horse as easily and
unconsciously as any one of his women friends at home would rest in a
comfortable chair.
As the
horsewoman drew nearer he fell to wondering what she was like.
The girl turned
her horse toward the hotel entrance. As she drew still nearer, he saw that her
mouth was too large, her face too strong, her skin too tanned by the sun and
wind.
At the sidewalk
the girl swung from the saddle lightly, and throwing the bridle reins over the
horse's head with a movement that brought out the beautiful lines of her figure,
she turned her back upon the pawing, restless animal with as little concern as
though she had delivered him to a correctly uniformed groom. No, she was not
pretty; she was—magnificent.
All along the
arcade people were smiling in greeting, the men lifting their hats. Two cowboys
in boots and chaps paused in passing. "That new hawss of yours is sure
some hawss, Miss Barbara," said one admiringly, sombrero in hand.
The girl smiled
and Holmes saw the flash of her perfect teeth. "Oh, he'll do, Bob, when
I've worked him down a little."
She passed into
the hotel, followed by the eyes of every man in sight including the engineer,
who had noted with surprise the purity and richness of her voice.
She said:
"I beg your pardon. Is this Mr. Holmes?"
He turned
quickly, rising to his feet.
She smiled at
his astonished look. "The clerk pointed you out to me. I am Barbara Worth.
You met father at the bank this morning. Texas Joe and Pat told me about your
being here and I could scarcely wait to see you. I'm afraid you must have
thought them a little rough last night but really it's only their fun. They're
as good as gold."
As she stood
now close to him—the red blood glowing under the soft brown of her
cheeks—Willard Holmes felt her rich personality as distinctly as one senses the
presence of the ocean, the atmosphere of the woods or the air of meadows and
fields.
But this was the unconventional limit! that this girl, the daughter of
a banker, should openly seek out a total stranger to introduce herself to him
on the public street before a crowd of hotel loungers! And the way she spoke of
those rough men in the saloon, one would think they were her intimate friends.
He managed to
say: "Really, I am delighted, Miss Worth. May I escort you to the hotel
parlor?"
She looked at
him curiously. "Oh, no indeed! It is much nicer out here in the arcade,
don't you think? But you may bring another chair."
Dumbly he obeyed, feeling
that every eye was on him.
"When Texas and Pat told me
that you were one of the engineers going out with The King's Basin party I
could scarcely wait to see you. It makes it all seem so real, you know—your
coming all the way out here from New
York. I have dreamed so much about the reclamation of
The King's Basin Desert; and you see I consider all civil
engineers my personal friends."
"Indeed,"
he said. It is always safely correct to say "indeed" as he said it,
particularly when you have nothing else to say.
She regarded
him with an open, straight-forward look which was somewhat disconcerting. She
was so unconscious of the strength of her splendid womanhood and he felt her
presence so vividly.
"I suppose
you must find everything out here very strange," she said. "Father
says this is your first visit to the West and of course it can't be like
your part of the country."
"It is all
very interesting," he murmured. This also was sane and safe. "It is very kind of you, I am
sure," he said with a little more warmth.
"To tell the truth I was feeling a bit strange, you
know."
"I'm sure
you must be nearly dead with lonesomeness. Wouldn't you like to go for a ride?
I would so like to show you my Desert."
"Her
Desert!" he mentally observed. He answered heartily: "I should be
delighted, I'm sure. You are more than kind. When could we go?"
"Right
now," she said.
"But I
don't ride, you know."
"You don't
ride?" The girl looked at him in blank amazement. "I don't think I
ever saw a man before who didn't ride."
"I'm very
sorry. I know I ought to."
"Oh, well;
we can drive. I'll summon a rig."
When the employee
returned a little later with a span of restless, half-wild broncos hitched to a
light buggy, the girl stepped into the vehicle and took the reins as a matter
of course. The engineer took his place at her left.
Shying and
plunging the team demanded all of Barbara's attention but she managed to steal
a look at her companion now and then, as if expecting him to show signs of
nervousness.
Willard Holmes, on his part, was wrapped in silent admiration of
her strength and skill.
