left him in Vancouver the doctor told him it would be a month before
he could wear a boot again."

He laughed. "I have a shrewd suspicion that one has to get hardened to
that kind of thing, and, surely, this is considerably nicer."

"This," repeated Violet, who fancied she understood what he meant, "is
very much the same thing as you are accustomed to in London, except
that the houses are, no doubt, more luxuriously furnished, and the
company is more brilliant and entertaining."

"You would not expect me to make any admission of that kind?" and the
man looked at her reproachfully. "In any case, it wouldn't be
warranted."

"Then," said Violet, "I must have some very erroneous notions of your
English mansions."

The man smiled. "Ah!" he said, "I was referring to the company."

He had expressed himself in a similar fashion once or twice before,
but Violet did not resent it. She admitted that she rather liked him,
and she did not know that, although he had been a week or two at
Bonavista, he had only intended to stay there a few days. It had
naturally occurred to Mrs. Acton that there might be a certain
significance in this, but she was misled by the open manner in which
another young woman had annexed him.

There were other guests in the room, and among them was a little
bald-headed man, whom Violet had heard had philanthropic tendencies,
and was connected with some emigration scheme. This man was talking to
Acton. He spoke in a didactic manner, tapping one hand with his
gold-rimmed spectacles, and appeared quite content that the rest
should hear him.

"There is no doubt that this country offers us a great field," he
said. "In fact, I have already made arrangements for settling a number
of deserving families on the land. What I am particularly pleased
with is the manner in which the man who makes his home here is brought
into close contact with Nature. The effect of this cannot fail to be
what one might term recuperative. There is a vitality to be drawn from
the soil, and I have of late been urging the manifold advantages of
the simple life upon those who are interesting themselves in these
subjects with me."

Violet glanced at her companion, and saw the amusement in his eyes.

"Do you all talk like that in England?" she inquired.

The man raised his hand reproachfully. "I'm afraid some of us talk a
good deal of rubbish now and then. Still, as a matter of fact, we
don't round up our sentences in that precise