ight, and observed Le Compte scowling upon him from the
dark end of the hall beyond.

Bristol hastened to the post-office and added the events of the evening
to his daily report, which reached me the next afternoon, when I
telegraphed to him to proceed with Mrs. Winslow, as her friend; but
while pleasing her by feigning extreme regard, to be discreet, and not
put himself too much in her power, nor to allow her to advance any of
her other schemes by a sort of exhibition of him as her champion and
protector.

Mrs. Winslow was made very happy by Bristol's acceptance of her
invitation, and, at her suggestion, they took the train for Port
Charlotte as strangers--Mrs. Winslow informing Bristol that the "old
scoundrel," meaning Lyon, was having her watched, she believed, but she
would outwit him at every point; but on arriving at the Port the loving
couple got together quite naturally, and soon after were on board a
steamer bound for Port Hope.

It was one of those dreamy, hazy days of early September, when the
disappearing shore seemed to gradually take upon itself a tint of blue
as deep as that of the sky above and as pure as that of the waters
below, which on this day was almost as smooth as a mirror, only broken
by long, far-reaching swells that seemed to have neither beginning nor
end, but which here and there swept away in endless ribbons of liquid
light, while the trailing wake of the steamer seemed in the pleasant sun
like some marvellous and limitless lace-work flung across the water in
wanton richness and profusion.

It was a lovely day for love, and to an unprejudiced observer Bristol
and Mrs. Winslow improved it. At Charlotte the woman spoke of the matter
in such a way that Bristol understood that she would not object to make
the trip as his wife, but he innocently failed to catch the meaning of
her covert invitation, and was only the attentive admirer during the
entire trip. But in the cabin, or seated coyishly together under a huge
sunshade upon the forward deck, they were as fine a couple as one would
care to see, while the woman seemed unusually affectionate and
agreeable.

Arriving at Port Hope after a few hours, the couple took the night train
for the West, and arrived at Toronto at midnight, being driven to the
Queen's Hotel. They had become so confidential and intimate by this time
that Mrs. Winslow again suggested the propriety of travelling under more
intimate relations than they had done, but was a