er front, her keen eyes could make
out the roof which, six years before, she had learned to call home.
She could imagine the stir and excitement in that home: the
controlled eagerness of her busy father, the gentle flurry of her
invalid mother, and the tempestuous bulletins issued by the small
brother whose occasional letters, full of incoherent affection and
quaint bits of orthography, had added interest to the last years of
her English life. One and all, they were loyally intent upon her
coming. And she, ingrate that she was, could spare thought from the
dear home circle to waste it upon the forgetful young Canadian who
was talking horse and politics by the rail.

She turned sharply, as Weldon's voice fell upon her ears.

"Happy New Year, Miss Dent! It is an odd wish to be giving, with the
mercury at ninety."

With her London gown, she had also donned her London manner, and her
answer was banal.

"But none the less welcome, for all its being so warm. May I return
it?"

He laughed, like the great, overgrown boy that he so often showed
himself.

"I decline to take it back. And where have you been, all the
morning?"

"Packing my steamer trunk. I have been on deck for nearly an hour,
though."

"I'm sorry I missed so much of the time. I don't see why I didn't
see you," he said regretfully. "I was over there by the rail with
Carew and a lot of the other fellows, watching the town show up. It
was mighty interesting, too, this getting one's first glimpse of a
new corner of the earth."

Most men would have seemed penitent over their absorption in other
things. Weldon merely acknowledged it as a matter of course, and
allowed the girl to draw her own conclusions. She drew them
accordingly. At first, they antagonized her. Later on, she admitted
their justice. Meanwhile, she kept her momentary antagonism quite to
herself, as she looked up into the face of her companion, an
earnest, manly face, in spite of its boyish outlines.

"It is hard for me to realize that you are a stranger here," she
answered him. "All the way out, you have given the impression of
having made the voyage any number of times."

"In what way?"

"In the way of getting what you wish in an utterly matter-of-course
fashion." Her laugh belied her London exterior and belonged to the
broad felt hat and the soft blouse of the past two weeks.

"That is the one compliment I most value, Miss Dent."

"See that you continue to live up to it, Mr. Weldon