it worth while to talk to me. Now I can
get along with your uncle; I can mostly tell that kind of man when I
see him. You have got to let him stay some weeks yet. It would be in
one way a kindness to me. What makes the thing easier is the fact that
Mrs. Acton has taken to you, and when she gets hold of anyone she
likes, she doesn't let him go."

Nasmyth was content to stay, and he felt that it would be a kindness
to his host. Acton appeared willing to fall in with the views of his
wife, but Nasmyth fancied that he was now and then a little lonely in
his own house.

"Both of you have done everything you could to make our stay
pleasant," Nasmyth declared.

"It was quite easy in your case," and a twinkle crept into his host's
eyes. "Your uncle's the same kind of a man as I am, and one can see
you have been up against it since you came to this country. That's one
of the best things that can happen to any young man. I guess it's not
our fault we don't like all the young men they send us out from the
Old Country." He glanced down at his cigar. "Well, I've pretty well
smoked this thing out. It's the kind of cigar I was raised on, but I'm
not allowed to use that kind anywhere in my house."

In another moment Acton swung round, and stepped back through an
open window. He generally moved abruptly, and was now and then
painfully direct in conversation, but Nasmyth had been long enough
in that country to understand and to like him. He was a man with a
grip of essential things, but it was evident that he could bear
good-humouredly with the views of others.

Nasmyth sat still after Acton left him. There were other guests in the
house, and the row of windows behind him blazed with light. One or two
of the big casements were open, and music and odd bursts of laughter
drifted out. Somebody, it seemed, was singing an amusing song, but the
snatches of it that reached Nasmyth struck him as pointless and inane.
He had been at Bonavista a week, but, after his simple, strenuous life
in the Bush, he felt at times overwhelmed by the boisterous vivacity
with which his new companions pursued their diversions. There are not
many men without an occupation in the West, but Mrs. Acton knew where
to lay her hands on them, and her husband sometimes said that it was
the folks who had nothing worth while to do who always made the
greatest fuss. But Nasmyth found it pleasant to pick up again the
threads of the life which he had almost come to the co