She tolerated the
half-monthly visits of "Jim Hoskins," the young companion of the doctor,
who she learned was the doctor's factor and overseer of the property,
who lived seven miles away on an agricultural clearing, and whose
control of her actions was evidently limited by the doctor,--for the
doctor's sake alone. Nor was Mr. Hoskins inclined to exceed those
limits. He looked upon her as something abnormal,--a "crank" as
remarkable in her way as her patron was in his, neuter of sex and vague
of race, and he simply restricted his supervision to the bringing
and taking of messages. She remained sole queen of the domain. A rare
straggler from the main road, penetrating this seclusion, might have
scarcely distinguished her from Waya, in her coarse cotton gown and
slouched hat, except for the free stride which contrasted with her
companion's waddle. Once, in following an estrayed calf, she had
crossed the highway and been saluted by a passing teamster in the digger
dialect; yet the mistake left no sting in her memory.
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