's 'Dook?"

Katherine winced. Of course every man at Roaring Water Portage and
Seal Cove called every other man by his Christian name, and she had
always been used to hearing "'Duke", but nevertheless it grated
horribly, so her manner was a trifle more haughty than usual when
she announced that her father was not so well, although she did not
choose to inform this man that he was very ill.

"Well, well, poor chap, he don't seem to get on fast, no, that he
don't. It's downright lucky for him that he's got sech a bright
gal as you to look after things. He is a smart sight better off
than I should have been under the circumstances;" and Oily Dave
struck an attitude of respectful admiration, leering at Katherine
from his half-closed eyes.

"What do you wish, for to-night?" she asked coldly.

"A good many things, my supper most of all, for I've had nothing
but a mouthful of biscuit all day. But I shall have to wait for
that till I get back to Seal Cove, and then I shall have to cook it
myself, for that swell lodger of mine ain't no good about a house,"
said Oily Dave, with a shake of his head.

Katherine put her hand to her throat with a quick movement, to
check a hysterical desire for laughter. She and Mrs. Burton had
both marvelled that day at the exceeding handiness displayed by
Jervis Ferrars. He had made the bed for the stricken head of the
house as deftly as a woman might have done, and had helped in the
kitchen at supper time as if he had been getting meals regularly
for the last two or three years; but of this she was not disposed
to speak, and waited in silence for Oily Dave to state his
requirements.

"I want some canned tomatoes. Have you got any?"

"We have plenty of two-pound tins, but we are sold out of the
smaller ones," she answered, then made a mental note that in future
she would buy all small tins, because they sold so much more easily.

"That's a nuisance, but I suppose I'll have to put up with it," he
said, with a sigh and another shake of his head. "Fact is, I want
to take home a relish for supper. My lodger don't take to simple
food such as we are used to in these parts. It is a downright
swell tuck-in he looks to get, same as you might expect to have in
one of the Montreal hotels."

Again Katherine wanted to laugh, but checked the impulse
resolutely, and asked: "Is the flood at Seal Cove as bad as ever,
or has the barrier given way at the mouth of the river?"

"I didn't know the