ed the old lady, in a provoking aside, "news
travels faster still."

Flora was annoyed beyond measure at the impertinent curiosity of the
inquisitive old man. She felt certain that her conversation with her
husband had been overheard. She knew that Captain Kitson and his wife
were notable gossips, and it was mortifying to know that their secret
plans in a few hours would be made public. She replied coldly, "Captain
Kitson, you have been misinformed; we may have talked over such a thing
in private as a matter of speculation, but nothing at present has been
determined."

"Now, my dear, that won't do; leave an old sailor to find out a rat. I
tell you that 'tis the common report of the day. Besides, is not the
_Leaftenant_ gone this morning with that scapegrace, Tom W----, to hear
some lying land-shark preach about Canada."

"Lecture! Kitson," said the old lady, who was not a whit behind her
spouse in wishing to extract the news, though she suffered him to be the
active agent in the matter.

"Lecture or preach, it's all one; only the parson takes his text from
the Bible to hold forth upon, and these agents, employed by the Canada
Company, say what they can out of their own heads. The object in both is
to make money. I thought the _Leaftenant_ had been too long in a colony
to be caught by chaff."

"My husband can judge for himself, Captain Kitson. He does not need the
advice, or the interference of a third person," said Flora, colouring
again. And this time she felt really angry; but there was no shaking the
old man off.

"To be sure--to be sure," said her tormentor, without taking the
smallest notice of her displeasure; "people are all wise in their own
eyes. But what is Canada to you, my dear? A fine settler's wife you will
make; nervous and delicate, half the time confined to your bed with some
complaint or other. And then, when you are well, the whole blessed day
is wasted in reading and writing, and coddling up the babby. I tell you
that sort of business will not answer in a rough country like Canada. I
was there often enough during the American war, and I know that the
country won't suit you,--no, nor you won't suit the country."

Finding that Mrs. Lyndsay made no answer to this burst of eloquence, he
continued, in a coaxing tone--

"Now, just for once in your life, my dear, be guided by older and wiser
heads than your own, and give up this foolish project altogether. Let
well alone. You are happy and comfort