d he not love
her? What other was this that filled his heart? Could he honestly say,
"Jane, I want you for my wife"? He could not. Miserable and cursing
himself he went his way.

CHAPTER XX

THE GERMAN TYPE OF CITIZENSHIP

Mr. Dean Wakeham was always glad to have a decent excuse to run up to
the Lakeside Farm. His duties at the Manor Mine were not so pressing
that he could not on occasion take leave of absence, but to impose
himself upon the Lakeside household as frequently as he desired made it
necessary for him to utilise all possible excuses. In the letter which
he held in his hand and which he had just read he fancied he had found a
perfectly good excuse for a call. The letter was from his sister Rowena
and was dated May 15th, 1914. It was upon his sister's letters that he
depended for information regarding the family life generally and about
herself in particular. His mother's letters were intimate and personal,
reflecting, however, various phases of her ailments, her anxieties for
each member of the family, but especially for her only son now so far
from her in that wild and uncivilised country, but ever overflowing with
tender affection. Dean always put down his mother's letters with a smile
of gentle pity on his face. "Poor, dear Mater," he would say. "She is at
rest about me only when she has me safely tucked up in my little bed."
His father's letters kept him in touch with the office and, by an
illuminating phrase or two, with the questions of Big Business. But when
he had finished Rowena's letters he always felt as if he had been paying
a visit to his home. Through her letters his sister had the rare gift of
transmitting atmosphere. There were certain passages in his letter just
received which he felt he should at the earliest moment share with the
Lakeside Farm people, in other words, with Nora.

His car conveyed him with all speed to Lakeside Farm in good time
for the evening meal. To the assembled family Dean proceeded to read
passages which he considered of interest to them. "'Well, your Canadian
has really settled down into his place in the office and into his own
rooms. It was all we could do to hold him with us for a month, he is so
fearfully independent. Are all Canadians like that? The Mater would have
been glad to have had him remain a month longer. But would he stay? He
has a way with him. He has struck up a terrific friendship with Hugo
Raeder. You remember the Yale man who has come to B