ng surface of the lake. The boat that
ought to have met them had not arrived.

"I suppose this is the spot where Harry Vernon agreed to land and take
us on board?" she said.

"It's like the spot. I understand we must watch out for a point opposite
an island with big trees."

"Watch out?" Grace remarked.

"Watch out is good Canadian," Barbara rejoined. "I'm studying the
language and find it expressive and plain. When our new friends talk you
know what they mean. Besides, I'd better learn their idioms, because I
might stop in Canada if somebody urged me."

Grace gave her a quiet look. Barbara meant to annoy her, or perhaps did
not want to admit she had mistaken the spot. Now Grace came to think
about it, the plan that the young men should meet them and paddle them
down the lake was Barbara's.

"I don't see why we didn't go with Harry and the other, as he
suggested," she said.

"Then, you're rather dull. They didn't really want us; they wanted to
fish. To know when people might be bored is useful."

"But there are a number of bays and islands. They may go somewhere
else," Grace insisted.

"Oh well, it ought to amuse Harry and Winter to look for us, and if
they're annoyed, they deserve some punishment. If they had urged us very
much to go, I would have gone. Anyhow, you needn't bother. There's a
short way back to camp by the old loggers' trail."

Grace said nothing. She thought Barbara's carelessness was forced;
Barbara was sometimes moody. Perhaps she felt Shillito's going more than
she was willing to own. For all that, the fellow was gone, and Barbara
would, no doubt, presently be consoled.

"If mother could see things!" Barbara resumed. "Sometimes one feels one
wants a guide, but all one gets is a ridiculous platitude from her
old-fashioned code. One has puzzles one can't solve by out-of-date
rules. However, since she doesn't see, there's no use in bothering."

"I'm your elder sister, but you don't give me your confidence."

Barbara's mood changed and her laugh was touched by scorn. "You are
worse than mother. She's kind, but can't see; you don't want to see. I'd
sooner trust my step-father. He's a very human old ruffian. I wish I had
a real girl friend, but you tactfully freeze off all the girls I like.
It's strange how many people there are whom virtuous folks don't
approve."

Grace missed the note of appeal in her sister's bitterness. She did not
see the girl as disturbed by doubts and looked in perp