isited by them, and when undertaken
the trip was regarded as a notable jaunt.

Just now Mrs. Malling was a prey to the wildest excitement. An event
was about to happen which disturbed her to a degree. It is doubtful as
to what feeling was uppermost in her motherly bosom. She was torn
between many conflicting emotions--joy, grief, pleasurable excitement.
Her daughter, her only child, as she was wont to confide to her
matronly friends--for her boy, whom she loved as only a mother can
love a son, she believed she would never see again--was about to be
married.

No visit to town, not even a sea voyage across the ocean could
possibly compare with this. It was a more significant event in her
life even than when she went into Winnipeg to choose the monument
which was to be erected over the grave of her departed Silas. That she
had always had in her mind's eye, not because she looked forward to
his demise, but because she hoped some day to share with him its
sheltering canopy. But somehow this forthcoming marriage of her
daughter was in the nature of a shock to her. She was not mercenary,
far from it, she was above any such motive as that, but she had hoped,
when the time came for such matters to be considered, that Prudence
would have married a certain rancher who lived out by the Lake of the
Woods, a man of great wealth, and a man whom Mrs. Malling considered
desirable in every way. Instead of that Prudence had chosen for
herself amongst her many suitors, and worst of all she had chosen an
insignificant official in the Customs department. That to Hephzibah
Malling was the worst blow of all. With proper motherly pride she had
hoped that "her girl" would have married a "some one" in her own
world.

The winter evening shadows--it was the middle of January and winter
still held sway upon the prairie--were falling, and the parlour at the
farm was enveloped in a grey dusk. The room was large, low-ceiled, and
of irregular shape.

It was furnished to serve many purposes, principally with a view to
solid comfort. There was no blatant display of wealth, and every
article of furniture bore signs of long though careful use. The
spotless boarded floor was bare of carpet, but was strewn with
rough-cured skins, timber-wolf, antelope, coyote and bear, and here
and there rugs of undoubted home make; these latter of the patchwork
order. The centre table was of wide proportions and of solid mahogany,
and told of the many services of the a