terest in him, were
circumstances propitious. She held out the letter to him at once. "It is
from my sister in the West--at Shilah," she explained. "There is nothing
in it you can't read, and most of it concerns you." Jean Jacques took
the letter, but he could not bring himself to read it, for Virginie
Poucette's manner was not suggestive of happy tidings. After an
instant's hesitation he handed the letter to M. Fille, who pressed his
lips with an air of determination, and put on his glasses.

Jean Jacques saw the face of the Clerk of the Court flush and then turn
pale as he read the letter. "There, be quick!" he said before M. Fille
had turned the first page.

Then the widow of Palass Poucette came to him and, in a simple harmless
way she had, free from coquetry or guile, stood beside him, took his
hand and held it. He seemed almost unconscious of her act, but his
fingers convulsively tightened on hers; while she reflected that here
was one who needed help sorely; here was a good, warm-hearted man on
whom a woman could empty out affection like rain and get a good harvest.
She really was as simple as a child, was Virginie Poucette, and even in
her acquaintance with Sebastian Dolores, there had only been working in
her the natural desire of a primitive woman to have a man saying that
which would keep alive in her the things that make her sing as she
toils; and certainly Virginie toiled late and early on her farm. She
really was concerned for Jean Jacques. Both wife and daughter had taken
flight, and he was alone and in trouble. At this moment she felt
she would like to be a sister to him--she was young enough to be his
daughter almost. Her heart was kind.

"Now!" said Jean Jacques at last, as the Clerk of the Court's eyes
reached the end of the last page. "Now, speak! It is--it is my Zoe?"

"It is our Zoe," answered M. Fille.

"Figure de Christ, what do you wait for--she is not dead?" exclaimed
Jean Jacques with a courage which made him set his feet squarely.

The Clerk of the Court shook his head and began. "She is alive.
Madame Poucette's sister saw her by chance. Zoe was on her way up the
Saskatchewan River to the Peace River country with her husband. Her
husband's health was bad. He had to leave the stage in the United States
where he had gone after Winnipeg. The doctors said he must live the
open-air life. He and Zoe were going north, to take a farm somewhere."

"Somewhere! Somewhere!" murmured Jean Jacques.