can't help it."

Gordon asked no injudicious questions, for Wheeler had mentioned the
letter, and his comrade's voice had its significance for him.

"Then," he said, "I'll tell Mattawa to have the horse ready."

Nasmyth slept soundly until the meal was laid out. He rode into the
settlement a little before dark that night. It was the next afternoon
when he reached Bonavista, and he found Violet Hamilton sitting upon
the veranda alone. She appeared embarrassed when she saw him, and he
leaned against one of the pillars, quietly looking down on her. For a
moment or two neither of them said anything, and it was Nasmyth who
broke the awkward silence.

"I felt very bitter when I got that note," he said. "When I grappled
with the thing, however, I commenced to realize that you might be
right. Of course, I quite realized all you wished to imply."

"Ah!" answered the girl softly, "then you are not very angry with me."
She leaned forward and met his gaze. "I think we were both very nearly
making a terrible mistake."

"I scarcely think that is a thing you could expect me to admit--that
is, at least, as far as my part in it goes," said Nasmyth.

"Still," replied Violet, "you admitted that you felt I might be
right."

She looked anxious, and Nasmyth realized that, since she might have
written what she had to say, it must have cost her a good deal to
break with him personally. The courage which had prompted her to
summon him appealed to him, and, in place of anger, he was conscious
of a certain sympathy for her.

"In one sense you were certainly right," he said. "We belong to
different worlds, and I should never have spoken to you as I did. That
is a thing you must try to forgive me, and you have no reason to
blame yourself. As I told you at the time, you were free."

"Ah!" cried Violet, "you are very generous. After all, I expected that
from you, and I think it will not hurt you very much to give me up."

"I wonder why?" asked Nasmyth gravely.

Violet sat silent a moment or two, and then looked up at him quietly.

"Oh," she said, "you owe so much to that girl in the Bush! She would
always have come between us. I think you made me recognize it when you
told me about her, though it was only by degrees I came to understand
it clearly."

Nasmyth's face flushed. "That," he queried, "is your reason for
wishing to get rid of me?"

Violet looked away from him, and there was a telltale self consciousness
in her manner when