his
disadvantages might be removed. Harding was confident that they were
going to be rich. Thinking about the girl tenderly, he walked up and
down the terrace until he grew calm, and then went in to talk to Miss
Challoner.

The next fortnight passed uneventfully and then one afternoon he met
Millicent in a field-path and turned back with her to Hazlehurst. It
was a raw day and the wind had brought a fine colour into her face,
while she wore a little fur cap and fur-trimmed jacket which he thought
became her very well.

"You have not been over often; Foster was remarking about it," she said
to him.

"That's true," said Blake, who had kept away for fear of his resolution
melting if he saw much of her. "Still, my uncle seems to think he has
a prior claim, and I mayn't be able to stay with him long."

"Then you are going back to Canada?" The quick way the girl looked up,
and something in her tone, suggested unpleasant surprise, for she had
been taken off her guard.

"I shall have to go when Harding needs me. I haven't heard from him
since I arrived, but I'll get my summons sooner or later."

"I thought you had come home for good."

There was rueful humour but no bitterness in Blake's smile. "Oh! no;
though I'm very fond of it, Sandymere is not my home. It will be
Bertram's by and by and he is married. I'm the poor relation and no
great credit to the family."

Millicent's colour deepened, but she looked at him steadily. "I think
that is wrong. Since you have been so frank, I may perhaps say that I
know there has been a serious mistake somewhere."

"I'm flattered," Blake rejoined, and something in his voice was out of
keeping with his half whimsical bow. "It's nice to know your friends
think well of you; but you mustn't let your good-nature get the better
of your judgment."

"Perhaps I shouldn't have ventured so far." There was a hint of
impatience in Millicent's gesture. "But are you content with your life
in the North-West?"

"It has its charm. There are very few restrictions, one feels free.
The fences haven't reached us yet; you can ride as far as you can see
over miles of grass and through the clumps of bush. There's something
attractive in the wide horizon; the riband of trail that seems to run
forward for ever draws you on."

"But the Arctic frost and snow?"

"After all, they're bracing. Our board shacks with the big stoves in
them are fairly warm, and no one can tell what developmen