e few days and
nights she had spent in the train. It takes some time to become
accustomed to the atmosphere of a stove-heated sleeper car, and since
she had landed she had been in a state of not altogether unnatural
nervous tension.

Indeed, she had found it a little difficult to preserve an outward
serenity the previous day, and when at length the great train ran into
the depot at Winnipeg, where Gregory had arranged to meet them, it was
with a thrill of expectancy and relief that she stood upon the car
platform. There was, however, no sign of him, and though Wyllard
handed her a telegram from him a few minutes later the fact that he had
not arrived had a depressing effect on her. Quiet as she usually was,
the girl was highly strung. It appeared that something had gone wrong
with Hawtrey's waggon while he was driving in to the railroad, and as
the result of it he had missed the Atlantic train. She could not blame
him for this, but for all that his absence had been an unpleasant shock.

Feeling that her companion's eyes were upon her, she turned, and
looking out of the window found no encouragement in what she saw. The
snow had gone, and a vast expanse of grass ran back to the horizon; but
it was a dingy, greyish-white, and not green as it had been in England.
The sky was low and grey, too, and the only thing that broke the dreary
monotony of lifeless colour was when the formless, darker smear of a
birch bluff rose out of the empty levels. Her heart throbbed
unpleasantly fast as the few remaining minutes slipped away, and at
length she started when a dingy mass of something that looked like
buildings lifted itself above the prairie.

"The Clermont elevators," said Mrs. Hastings. "We'll be in directly."

The mass separated itself into two or three tall component blocks. A
huddle of little wooden houses grew into shape beneath them, and a
shrill whistle came ringing back above the slowing cars. Then a willow
bluff, half filled with old cans and garbage, flitted by, a big bell
commenced tolling, and Agatha rose when Mrs. Hastings took up her furs
from a seat close by. After that, she found herself standing on the
platform of the car, though she did not quite know how she got there,
for she was sensible only of the fact that in another moment or two she
would greet the lover she had last seen four years ago.

In the meanwhile, though she paid them no great attention, the
surroundings had a depressing effect