ine Mrs. Knapp doesn't want to
talk to me. I'm not a big-business man."

Ruth laughed. "Oh, well, when you speculate at the Board of Trade, a
railroad engineer is not a useful friend. I suppose I ought to stay, but
the things one ought to do are tiresome. Let's go on the lake."

Lister got a canoe, and fixing a cushion for Ruth, picked up the paddle.

"Where shall we go?"

"North, as far as you can. Let's get away from the boats and trippers
and imagine we're back in the woods where you helped me catch the big
gray trout."

"Then you liked it at the construction camp?" Lister remarked. "It was a
pretty rude spot."

"For an indulged city girl?" Ruth said, smiling. "Well, perhaps I'd got
all the satisfaction dinner parties and dances and the society at hotels
can give. I knew the men who handle finance and work the wires behind
the scenes, but I wanted to know the others who do the strenuous things
and keep the country going. I came, and you helped me to understand the
romance of the lakes and woods."

Lister did not remember if he had tried to do so and thought he had not.
All the same, the girl was keen and interested. In summer, it was not
hard to feel the lonely sheets of water and tangled bush were touched by
romance. Then, perhaps, everybody felt at times a vague longing for the
rude and primitive. But he was not a philosopher, and dipping the
paddle, he drove the canoe across the tranquil lake.

In the meantime, he imagined Ruth studied him with quiet amusement, and
wondered whether she thought he was not playing up. He did not mean to
play up; the game was intricate, and, if he were rash, might cost him
much. He had taken off his hat and jacket and effort had brought back
the color to his skin. His thin face had the clean bronze tint of an
Indian's; the soft shirt showed the fine-drawn lines of his athletic
figure; but Lister was not conscious of this. He knew his drawbacks, but
not all his advantages.

When he had gone some distance and the hotel and houses began to melt
into the background, he stopped and let the canoe drift.

"How far shall we go?" he asked.

Ruth indicated a rocky point, cut off by the glimmering reflection, that
seemed to float above the horizon.

"Let's see what is on the other side. Now and then one wants to know.
Exploration's intriguing. Don't you think so?"

"Sometimes; in a practical sense. When a height of land cuts the
landscape, I wonder whether one could find an easy