Lady Merton, Colonist

ough not rapidly, from the general shock of immersion. Elizabeth, while nursing him tenderly,

erally found that the plans of the day had been suggested and organised by him, by telephone from Laggan, to the kind and competent Scotch lady who was the manager of the hotel. It seemed to her that he had promised his company; whereas, as a rule, now he w

onaldminster, and of an immediate Parliamentary career at Ottawa. These prophecies seemed to depend more upon the man's character than his actual achievements; though, indeed, the story of the great strike, as she had gathered it once or twice from the lips of eye-witnesses, was a fine one. For weeks he had carried his life in his hand among thousands of infuriated navvies and miners--since

when he had so brusquely probed her secret anxieties for Philip? Her pride rebelled when she thought of it, when she recalled her wet eyes, her outstretched hand. Mere humiliation!--in the case of a casual or indif

on found her more reserved, and noticed that she did not so often ask him for small services as of o

abit that weakens and enslaves the will, infected the English lad whether he would or no. "There's lots of things he's stick-stock mad on," Philip would say impatiently to his sister. But the madness told. And the madman was all the while consolingly rich in other, and, to Philip, more attractive kinds of madness--the follies of the hunter and climber, of the man who holds his neck as dross in comparison with the satisfaction of certain wild instincts that the Rockies excite in him. Anderson had enjoyed his full share of adventures with goat and bear. Such things are th

d? She would not allow herself to speculate upon it; though she could not help watching the relation between the two men with some

with his mind in another hemisphere; and it was understood that he was to leave them at Vancouver. In the forced association of their walks and rides, Elizabeth showed herself gay, kind, companionable; although often, and generally for no reason that he could discover, something sharp and icy in her would momentarily make itself felt, and he would find himself driven back within bounds that he had perhaps been tempted to transgress. And the result of it all was that he fell day by day more tormentingl

degrees to be able to form a fairly complete idea of his father's course of life since the false report of his death in the Yukon. He realised an existence on the fringe of civilisation, with its strokes of luck neutralised by drink, and its desperate, and probably criminal, moments. And as soon as his father got well enough to limp along the trails of the Laggan valley, the son noticed incidents which ap

on a young man, a Salvation Army officer in Vancouver, with whom his father consented to lodge for the next six weeks; and further arrangements were to be postponed till the end of that period. Anders

his evangelical religion--for he was a devout though liberal-minded Presbyterian--also entered in. Was it possible that he might be the agent of his father's redemption? The idea, the hope, produc

r to sit and smoke with him. Mrs. Ginnell, looking in of an evening, beheld what seemed to her a touching sight, though one far beyond the deserts of such creatures as McEwen--the son reading the newspaper aloud, or playing dominoes with his f

gination, denied a more personal and passionate food, gave itself with

rop of holiday-makers from Eastern Canada and the States; the hotels were filling up. On the morrow McEwen was to start for Vancouver. And a letter from Philip Gaddesden

tablished among the pines by the lake-side, Philip half asleep in a hammock strung between two pines, while Delaine

tin passages interspersed with stammering translations of his own, in which he appeared to be interminably tangled, would be enou

p roused himself from sleep only to complain: "You

way. I have be

ics?" ask

couple of meeti

Philip. "But we've had a b

d Elizabeth carelessly. "We co

lour, suddenly and brightly? The answering blood leapt in

sly inquisitive, and Anderson had often resented them. To-day, however, he let himself be catechised patiently

and the pale refinement of her face, seemed to him ravishing, enchanting. So were the movements of her hands at work, and all

e companion of his first unlucky attempt at fishing was coming towards them. The boy sprang to the groun

r him with a sm

studied her a moment, unseen, except by Delaine, who was sitting among the m

e Canadian

y Merton, pointing to the fine promontory of purple piny rock which

; making a show of asking Delaine to come with them. Delaine also hesitated, and refrained; making a show of preferring the "Archaeological Review." He was left to wat

ces, and stealing even through the shadows. When the trees broke or receded, the full splendour of the glacier was upon them to their left; and then for a space they must divine it as a presence behind the actual, faint

ou'll have to apolog

arm that startled him. Was it only the physical effort and pleasure of the climb? As fo

ney. He described to her the growing town he

lowers. Now there are eight thousand people. They have reserved land for a park along the river, and sent for a landscape gardener from England to lay it out; they have made trees grow on the prairie; they have built a high school and a concert hall; the municipality is fu

w," put in Elizabeth

sense of boundlessness we have here--boundless space, boundless opportunity? It often makes fools of us: it intoxicates, turns our head

, musing--"and the strong men. About the wo

drudgery, the do

ces--and the daughter is dying of overwork! The husband has a large fruit farm, but the

y. "This country breeds lif

n--if they wanted to go home, and giv

d y

beth

ome; of the old servants; how it runs on wheels; how pretty and--and d

st roughly, and with a change of countenance. "You sacrif

England!" She paused to take breath, and as she leant resting against a t

. In all that valley, not a sign of human life, but the line of the railway. Not a house, not a village to be seen

s and uplands round her Cumberland home; of the old church, the embowered cottages, the lichened farms; the generations of lives that have died into the soil, like the summer leaves of the trees; of the ghosts to be felt in the air--ghosts of squire and labourer and farmer, alive still in men and wom

n in the rock, and encumbered by roots of trees. Anderson held out a helping hand; her fingers slipped wil

tly, with his encouraging s

ssed wilderness of peaks to west and south. Light masses of cumulus cloud were rushing over the sky, and driving waves of blue and purple colour across the mountain masses and the forest slopes. Golden was the sinking light and the sunlit half of the lake; golden the western faces and edges of the mounta

ersephone herself had just risen from the shadow of this nameless northern lake, and the new earth had broken into eager flame at her feet. Painter's brush, harebell, speedwell, golden-brown gaillardias, silvery hawkweed, columbi

t me on

nce, colour, warmth; the stir of an endless self-sufficient life; the fruitfulness and bounty of the earth; thes

ng brought her there, and said som

nd faced her smiling. But behind his frank, pleas

t makes it the more--the more touching. One clings to it the more

a moment, then

is is, that you could not

star

course I could imag

, the life up here--in th

ed at hi

English point of view. I am afraid

Any life that seemed to you worth while would f

her shoulders. He went on--alm

but it rewards them. They have a great place among us. It is like the women of the early races. We listen to the

involuntarily; but

d too! Com

ly be in Englan

ade a sudde

ould be in polit

exciting and flattering

from the Dominion Prime Minister, offering him a mission of inquiry to England, on some important matters connected with

ongratulate

will come to

is turn

formally. "As you know, I sha

zabeth, "and all our dear decrepit lif

d, half frowning. "You run yourselves down--a

, "any more than yours. We are yours--an

ntalise. We have our own

yal!" The note

oyal, as you are--loyal to a common

ting. What he had said seemed to jar with other and earlier

r emotion--her

r. But Canada will have her own history;

is a touch of sternness, a moment's re

abyss opened. The trembling waves of colour in the grass, the noble procession of the clouds, the gleaming of the snows, the shadow of the valleys--they were all wiped out. He saw instead a small unsavoury room--the cunning eyes a

shiver. The wind had begun to

? I hope Mr. Arthur will

s, small practical anxieties, about his father. There were arrangements still to make. He was not himself going to Vancouver. McEwen had lately shown a strong and petulant wish to pr

x foot three, had been appointed to see him through his journey, s

chairs and clothes out of his way. The room was in squalid disorder, and its inmate had a flushed, exasperated look that did not escape Anderson's noti

e out against his son for having refused to provide him with the money he wanted for the mine, and so ruined his last chance. Anderson hardly repli

r, took out a pocketbook full of bills. At Calgary the day before a friend had repaid him a loan of a thousand dollars. He gave Ginnell a certa

r," he said, stand

opened

E

They were wild and bloodshot, and again Anderson felt a pa

uver, father," he said gently. "

son went to the door he again called after him angrily:

on laughed. "Oh, we'll go in

reply, and An

saw to his astonishment that while the door of the Ginnells' room was still closed, his father's was wide open. He walked in. The room and the bed were empty. The contents of a box care

into his own room, Anderson noticed an open drawer. He had placed his pocketbook there the night

od of it. You let me alone, and I'll let you. You were a stin

nfidential inquiries. He telegraphed to persons known to him at Golden, Revelstoke, Kamloops, Ashcrof

ts and yearnings wounded to the death. The brutal manner of hi

depression. But he had been in telephonic communication all the afternoon with Delaine and Lady Merton at Lake Louise, as to th

ous. On a siding near the hotel stood the private car which had arrived that evening from Vancouver, and was to

ointment overshadowed him. Passionately, his whole soul turned to Elizabeth. He did not yet grasp all