the redwood behind you--and you had burst
the strap of one little shoe."

"Haven't you overlooked Arabella?" suggested Ida, who realized that
his memory was significantly clear.

"Miss Kinnaird?" said Weston. "Of course, she was with you--but it's
rather curious that she's quite shadowy. I don't quite seem to fix
her, though I have a notion that she didn't fit in. She was out of
key."

"That," laughed Ida, "was probably the result of wearing a smart
English skirt. Do you remember the day you fell down and broke her
parasol, and what you said immediately afterward about women's
fripperies?"

"I didn't know that I had an audience," explained Weston, with his
eyes twinkling. "I certainly remember that when you fancied that I had
hurt myself you would have carried half the things over the portage if
I had let you. We went fishing that evening. There was one big trout
that broke you in the pool beneath the rapid. The scent of the firs
was wonderful."

She led him on with a few judicious questions and suggestions, and for
half an hour they talked of thundering rivers, still lakes and shadowy
bush. He remembered everything, and, without intending to do so, he
made it clear that in every vivid memory she was the prominent figure.
It was here she had hooked a big trout, and there she had, under his
directions, run a canoe down an easy rapid. She had enjoyed all that
the great cities had to offer, but as she listened to him she sighed
for the silence of the pine-scented bush.

At last he rose with a deprecatory smile.

"I'm afraid I've rather abused your patience," he said; "and I have to
call on Wannop about the mine."

"You have told me nothing about it," said Ida. "How is it getting on?"

A shadow crept into Weston's face.

"There isn't very much to tell, and it was a relief to get it out of
my mind for an hour or so. As a matter of fact, it's by no means
getting on as we should like it."

Then, after another word or two, he took up his hat and left her.

CHAPTER XXVIII

WESTON STANDS FAST

Business called Weston to Winnipeg a few days after his interview with
Ida, and, as it happened, he met Stirling at the head of the
companionway when the big lake steamer steamed out into Georgian Bay.
Neither of them had any other acquaintance on board, and they sat
together in the shade of a deckhouse as the steamer ploughed her way
smoothly across Lake Huron a few hours later. Weston had arranged to
meet a Ch