ally feudal fashion over a few
dozen superstitious habitants way back in old-world Quebec, as his
folks had done since the first French colonization. That explains my
daughter's views on social matters and her weakness for playing the
somewhat autocratic Lady Bountiful. The Seigneurs were benevolent
village despots with very quaint ways."

Savine spoke lightly, and one person only noticed that the face of his
daughter was slightly less pale in coloring than before, but that one
afterwards remembered her father's words and took them as a clue to the
woman's character. He discovered also that Helen Savine was both
generous and benevolent, but that she loved to rule, and to rule
somewhat autocratically.

The first day at the Savine villa passed like a pleasant dream to the
man who had toiled for a bare living in the shadowy forests or knelt
all day among hot rocks to hold the weary drill with bleeding fingers.
Mr. Savine grew more and more interested in Geoffrey, who, during the
second day, made great advances in the estimation of Mrs. Thomas
Savine. Bicycles were not so common a woman's possession in Canada, or
elsewhere, then. In fact, there were few roads in British Columbia fit
to propel one on. An American friend had sent Miss Savine a wheel
which, after a few journeys over a corduroy road, groaned most
distressfully whenever she mounted it. Helen desired to ride in to the
railroad, but the gaudy machine complained even more than usual, and
when at last one of its wheels declined to revolve, Julius Savine
called Geoffrey's attention to it.

"If you are anxious for mild excitement, and want to earn my daughter's
gratitude, you might tackle that confounded thing, Mr. Thurston," he
said. "The local blacksmith shakes his head over it, and sent it back
the last time worse than ever, with several necessary portions missing.
After running many kinds of machines in my time, I'm willing to own
that this particular specimen defies me."

Thurston had stripped and fitted various intricate mining appliances,
but he had never struggled with a bicycle. So, when Helen accepted his
offer of assistance, he wheeled the machine out upon the lawn and
proceeded light-heartedly to dismantle it, while the Savine brothers
lounged in cane chairs, encouraging him over their cigars. The
dismantling was comparatively simple, but when the time for
reassembling came, Thurston, who found that certain cups could not by
any legitimate m