a laugh. "Now, if you'll get
up."

While she mounted by the wheel he stood on the edge of the wagon, leaning
down toward her. There did not seem to be much foothold, the grass looked
slippery, and the hollow he had made was beyond her reach, but she seized
the hand he held out and he swung her up. For a moment his fingers
pressed tightly upon her waist, and then she was safe in the hollow,
smiling at him as he found a precarious seat on the rack.

"You couldn't see how you were going to get up, but you didn't hesitate,"
he said with a soft laugh, when he had started his team.

"No," she smiled back at him. "Somehow you inspire one with confidence. I
didn't think you would let me fall."

"Curious, isn't it?"

She reclined in the recess among the grass, which yielded to her limbs in
a way that gave her a sense of voluptuous ease. Her pose, although
scarcely a conventional one, showed to advantage the fine contour of her
form; and the lilac-tinted dress that flowed in classic lines about her
made a patch of cool restful color on the warm ocher of her surroundings.
It was easy to read the man's admiration in his glance, and she became
suddenly filled with mischievous daring.

"Cyril," she said, "you are either an excellent actor, or else--"

"I have been maligned. Is that what you meant?"

"I think I did mean something of the kind."

"Then I'm a very poor actor. That should settle the question."

"I've wondered how you became so very Canadian," she said thoughtfully.

"What's the matter with the Canadians?"

"Nothing. I haven't met very many yet, but on the whole I'm favorably
impressed by them. They're direct, blunt, perhaps less complex than we
are."

"No trimmings," he suggested. "They don't muss up good material so that
it can hardly be recognized. You can tell what a man is when you see him
or hear him talk."

"I don't know," Muriel argued. "I've an idea that it might be difficult,
even in Canada."

He let this pass.

"What do you think of the country?" he asked.

She glanced round. It was late in the afternoon and somewhat cooler than
it had been. Half the plain lay in shadow, but the light was curiously
sharp. A clump of ragged jack-pines stood on a sandhill miles away, and a
lake twinkled in the remote distance. The powerful Clydesdale horses
plodded through short crackling scrub; a fine scent of wild peppermint
floated about.

"Oh," she responded, "it's delightful! And everybody's so energet