t might not reach her, but if it did, he begged
she would give him her address when she left the hotel. He told her
where to write, and added if she could find a way to get his letters he
had much to say.

His coolness annoyed Barbara, but he had excited her curiosity and she
was intrigued. Moreover, Cartwright had tried to meddle and she wanted
to feel she was cleverer than he. Then Shillito was entitled to defend
himself, and to find the way he talked about would not be difficult.
Barbara knitted her brows and began to think.

At lunch Mrs. Cartwright told her they were going to join the Vernons in
the woods and she acquiesced. Two or three days afterwards they started,
and at the station she gave Cartwright her hand with a smiling glance,
but Cartwright knew his step-daughter and was not altogether satisfied.
Barbara did not sulk; when one tried to baffle her she fought.

The Vernons' camp was like others Winnipeg people pitch in the lonely
woods that roll west from Fort William to the plains. It is a rugged
country pierced by angry rivers and dotted by lakes, but a gasolene
launch brought up supplies, the tents were large and double-roofed, and
for a few weeks one could play at pioneering without its hardships. The
Vernons were hospitable, the young men and women given to healthy sport,
and Mrs. Cartwright, watching Barbara fish and paddle on the lake,
banished her doubts. For herself she did not miss much; the people were
nice, and the cooking was really good.

When two weeks had gone, Grace and Barbara sat one evening among the
stones by a lake. The evening was calm, the sun was setting, and the
shadow of the pines stretched across the tranquil water. Now and then
the reflections trembled and a languid ripple broke against the
driftwood on the beach. In the distance a loon called, but when its wild
cry died away all was very quiet.

Grace looked across the lake and frowned. She was a tall girl, and
although she had walked for some distance in the woods, her clothes were
hardly crumpled. Her face was finely molded, but rather colorless; her
hands were very white, while Barbara's were brown. Her dress and voice
indicated cultivated taste; but the taste was negative, as if Grace had
banished carefully all that jarred and then had stopped. It was
characteristic that she was tranquil, although she had grounds for
disturbance. They were some distance from camp and it would soon be
dark, but nothing broke the gleami