orgets an old friend.
Harold's just the same. Every time he writes he sends his love to
every old codger that chopped down a tree on this place. It's a fine
quality. It's Irish. We get it from my mother's side, though I'm more
English than Irish myself, praise the Lord. Well, it seems this
loyalty is out of place in this case, and Eleanor thinks the less Belle
sees of this young man the better. All perfect bosh and unthinkable
nonsense, you know; but you can never account for the mental workings
of some people. A woman's mind picks up an idea, particularly if it
concerns matrimony in the remotest degree, as a hen does a piece of
bread, and runs squawking all round this earthly barnyard advertising
the matter until she convinces herself and all the rest of the human
fowl that she's got a whole baking in her bill. Eleanor has snatched
up some such notion about Isabel and this young MacDonald, and the
youngster hardly out of short dresses yet! But there it is. She'll
never let go. All rubbish!"

He burst into a hearty laugh, and poked the fire until it crackled and
roared. "Now, Archie, what sort of figure do you think I shall cut
running for Parliament next fall? Think the Oa 'll run me off the face
of the earth?"

"Just one moment, Captain, before you leave this subject, and we'll
talk politics all day afterwards. Far be it from me to even glance
into the dark mysteries of matchmaking, but I'd like to know why Miss
Herbert should object so strongly to my young friend on so short an
acquaintance?"

Captain Herbert looked surprised. He drew himself up with a slight
access of dignity. "Oh, come now, Monteith!" he exclaimed, "you are
surely worldly wise enough to understand that, though this young Scotty
may be the most exemplary inhabitant of that excellent section where
you teach, he would scarcely be a match for my niece."

"I understand perfectly. And if Ralph were one of the ordinary young
men of the place I should most heartily agree with you. But you don't
know him. He is an exceptionally fine fellow; he has had as much
education as I have been able to guide him to since I came here, and
indeed he is a thorough gentleman at heart."

Captain Herbert shrugged his shoulders. "I suppose that's all true,
but what difference does that make? You don't want me to offer him my
niece, I hope."

Monteith paid no attention to such frivolity. He turned squarely upon
his host.

"Then I suppose you kn