purposes to immediate conclusions, were it not that the very gods seemed
to play his game with him. For, while he stood there, looking out into
the yard of the fort, a Protestant missionary passed the window. The
Protestant missionary, as he is found at such places as Fort Charles, is
not a strictly superior person. A Jesuit might have been of advantage
to Frank Armour at that moment. The Protestant missionary is not above
comfortable assurances of gold. So that when Armour summoned this one
in, and told him what was required of him, and slipped a generous gift
of the Queen's coin into his hand, he smiled vaguely and was willing to
do what he was bidden. Had he been a Jesuit, who is sworn to poverty,
and more often than not a man of birth and education, he might have
influenced Frank Armour and prevented the notable mishap and scandal. As
it was, Armour took more brandy.

Then he went down to Eye-of-the-Moon's lodge. A few hours afterwards
the missionary met him there. The next morning Lali, the daughter of
Eye-of-the-Moon, and the chieftainess of a portion of her father's
tribe, whose grandfather had been a white man, was introduced to the
Hudson's Bay country as Mrs. Frank Armour. But that was not all. Indeed,
as it stood, it was very little. He had only made his comedy possible as
yet; now the play itself was to come. He had carried his scheme through
boldly so far. He would not flinch in carrying it out to the last
letter. He brought his wife down to the Great Lakes immediately,
scarcely resting day or night. There he engaged an ordinary but reliable
woman, to whom he gave instructions, and sent the pair to the coast.
He instructed his solicitor at Montreal to procure passages for Mrs.
Francis Armour and maid for Liverpool. Then, by letters, he instructed
his solicitor in London to meet Mrs. Francis Armour and maid at
Liverpool and take them to Greyhope in Hertfordshire--that is, if
General Armour and Mrs. Armour, or some representative of the family,
did not meet them when they landed from the steamship.

Presently he sat down and wrote to his father and mother, and asked
them to meet his wife and her maid when they arrived by the steamer
Aphrodite. He did not explain to them in precise detail his feelings on
Miss Julia Sherwood's marriage, nor did he go into full particulars as
to the personality of Mrs. Frank Armour; but he did say that, because he
knew they were anxious that he should marry "acceptably," he ha