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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
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.
