est piece of patriotic exhortation I ever
listened to."

"But--it's very kind of you to say so; but I never mentioned King or
country."

"Exactly! You gave them the root of the whole matter. You cleared a way
into their hearts and heads which is open now for news of King and
country. It's as though I had to collect some money for an orphanage
from a people who'd never heard of charity. Before I see the people you
teach 'em the meaning and beauty of charity--wake the charitable sense
in them. You needn't bother mentioning orphanages; but if I come along
in your rear, my chances of collecting the money are a deal rosier than
if you hadn't been there first--what?"

"I see--I see," said Stairs, slowly.

"Mr. Crondall, you ought to have been a Canadian," said Reynolds, in his
dry way. His use of the "Mr.," even to a man who had no hesitation in
calling him plain "Reynolds," was just one of the tiny points of
distinction between himself and Stairs.

"Oh, Canada has taught me something; and so have South Africa and India;
and so have you and Stairs, with your mission, or pilgrimage, or
whatever it is--your Message."

"Well," said Stairs, "it seems to me your view of our pilgrimage is a
very kindly, and perhaps flattering one; and as I have said, your aims
as a citizen of the Empire and a lover of the Old Country could not have
warmer sympathizers than Reynolds and myself; but----"

"Mind, I'm not trying to turn your religious teaching to any ignoble
purpose," said Crondall, quickly. "I am not asking you to introduce a
single new word or thought into it for my sake."

"That's so," said Reynolds, his eye upon Stairs.

"Quite so, quite so," said Stairs. "And, of course, I am with you in all
you hope for; but you know, Crondall, religion is perhaps a rather
different matter to a parson from what it is to you. Forgive me if I put
it clumsily, but----"

And now, greatly daring, I ventured upon an interruption, speaking upon
impulse, without consideration, and hearing my voice as though it were
something outside myself.

"George Stairs," I said--and I fancy the thoughts of both of us went
back sixteen years--"what was it you thought about the Congregational
minister when you took over your post at Kootenay? How did you decide to
treat him? Did you ever regret the partnership?"

"Now if that isn't straight out Western fashion!" murmured Reynolds.
Constance beamed at me from her place beside John Crondall.

"I leave it