rything is
different."

"I know," she answered. "The salary won't support two. There's the
rub."

They sat for some minutes, gazing dreamily across the broad sheet of
silver.

"And so you are going to Manitoba?" she said at length.

"Yes. There are possibilities there. It's a gamble, and that is why I
didn't want to share it with you--at first. I thought I would spend a
year; locate a homestead; get some kind of a house built; perhaps
break some land. Then I would come back."

"And you weren't going to give me a word in all those preparations
for our future? You have a lot to learn yet, John. You won't find it
in that folder, either."

He laughed lightly--a happy, boyish laugh. For weeks the
determination to seek his fortune in the then almost unknown Canadian
West had been growing upon him, and as it grew he shrank more and
more from disclosing his plans to his _fiancee_. Had she been one of
the country girls of the neighbourhood, a daughter of the sturdy
backwoods pioneers, bred to hard work in field and barnyard, he would
have hesitated less. But she was sprung from gentler stock. It seemed
almost profane to think of her in the lonely life of a homesteader on
the bleak, unsettled plains--to see her in the monotony and drudgery
of the pioneer life. He had been steeling himself for the ordeal;
schooling himself with arguments; fortressing his resolve,
unconsciously, perhaps, with the picture of his own heroism in
braving the unknown. And she had scaled every breastwork at a bound,
and captured the citadel by the adroit diplomacy of apparent
surrender.

She had snatched his confession at an unguarded moment. He had not
meant to tell her so much--so soon. As he thought over the wheels he
had set in motion their possible course staggered him, and he found
himself arguing against the step he contemplated.

"It's a gamble," he repeated. "The agricultural possibilities of the
country have not been established. It may be adapted only to buffalo
and Indians. They say the Selkirk settlers have seen hardships
compared with which Ontario pioneers lived in luxury...We may be far
back from civilization, far from neighbours, or doctors, or churches,
or any of those things which we take as a matter of course."

"Then you will need me with you, John, and I am going."

She could not mistake the look of admiration in his eyes. "Mary," he
said, "you are a hero. I didn't think it was in you. I mean I--"

"A heroine, if you