own.

She compared him with her brother, and with other men she had known and
respected. Was he less honest? less brave? less independent? less
scrupulous in his dealings with his fellowmen? To all these questions
she was obliged to answer "No." And he was proud, too, and ambitious;
ambitious to carve out a fortune with his own hands, beholden to neither
man nor circumstances for the achievement. Certainly there was much
that was fine about him.

And, as far as his treatment of herself was concerned, after that first
terrible struggle for mastery, she had had nothing to complain of. He
had been patient with her ignorance and her lack of capabilities in all
the things that the women in this new life were so proficient in. Did
she not, perhaps, fall as far below _his_ standard as he did before
hers? There was certainly something to be said on both sides.

There was one quality which he possessed to which she paid ungrudging
tribute; never had she met a man so free from all petty pretense. He
regretted his lack of opportunities for educating himself, but it
apparently never entered his head to pretend a knowledge of even the
simplest subject which he did not possess. The questions that he asked
her from time to time about matters which almost any schoolboy in
England could have answered, both touched and embarrassed her.

At first she had found the evenings the most trying part of the day.
When not taken up with her household cares, she found herself becoming
absurdly self-conscious in his society. They were neither of them
naturally silent people, and it was difficult not to have the air of
"talking down" to him, of palpably making conversation. Beyond the
people at her brother's and the Sharps, they had not a single
acquaintance in common. Her horizon, hitherto, had been, bounded by
England, his by Canada.

Finally, acting on the suggestion he had made, but never again referred
to, the unforgettable day when they were leaving for Winnipeg, she began
reading aloud evenings while he worked on his new chairs. The experiment
was a great success. Her little library was limited in range; a few
standard works and a number of books on travel and some of history. She
soon found that history was what he most enjoyed. Things that were a
commonplace to her were revealed to him for the first time. And his
comments were keen and intelligent, although his point of view was
strikingly novel and at the opposite pole from hers. To be