rd had probably
forgotten the fact himself, and after a moment of silence, in which
he seemed to be gathering up his scattered faculties, he asked:

"Do you think you are going to like Canada, sir?"

"I like it immensely. I intend settling in the country
permanently. I have nothing to hold me in England, nor anything
which interests me enough to make me want to stay there. But here
there is so much to be done; the country is crying out for
development, and I--well, I think I want to have a hand in the
doing of it," Mr. Selincourt answered.

'Duke Radford nodded his head in complete understanding; something
of his old vigour seemed to have returned to him, and for the
moment the clouds were swept from his brain.

"Canada is a fine country;" he said. "Even her waste places
possess untold sources of wealth. Take this place, for instance:
there are fish enough in the rivers and the bay to feed a
multitude; there is timber enough to build a dozen towns, and
construct a navy as well; yet it continues almost as solitary as
when I came here, I can't remember how many years ago."

"It is a great pity; but that may be altered with time. We shall
see," replied Mr. Selincourt, then plunged into talk about the
resources of the immediate neighbourhood, the possibilities of vast
coalfields underlying the forest lands, of minerals lurking in
barren hillsides, and many other things.

'Duke Radford came out of his absorption and talked as he had not
done for many months, and when the visitor rose to go, after a
couple of hours' sitting in the pleasant, homely kitchen, with the
appetizing smell of new-baked bread perfuming the air, the invalid
begged him to come again very soon.

"Indeed I will, if Mrs. Burton will let me; but if I have tired you
with such a long talk she may refuse to allow me in," Mr.
Selincourt replied.

"Nellie won't do that. My children are very good to me, although
it is very hard on them that I should be left a log on their hands
like this. But I hope you will come soon, for you have given me a
very happy morning," the invalid said; and rising to his feet he
walked slowly into the sunshine, supporting himself on a stout
stick, to watch his visitor get into the waiting boat and be rowed
away to the opposite bank of the river.

When Katherine and Phil came down from Ochre Lake three hours
later, the invalid was still out-of-doors, only now he was seated
on a bank in the shade of a spreading spruc