t off at a gallop as the cars rolled in, leaving Savine smiling
dryly as he looked after him.

CHAPTER XIII

A TEST OF LOYALTY

It was during a brief respite from his task, which had been suspended,
waiting the arrival of certain tools and material, that Thurston
accompanied Savine and Helen to a semi-public gathering at the house of
a man who was a power in the Mountain Province just outside Vancouver.
Politicians, land-speculators, railroad and shipping magnates were
present with their wives and daughters, and most of them had a word for
Savine or a glance of admiration for Helen.

Savine moved among guests chatting with the brilliancy which
occasionally characterized him, and always puzzled Thurston.

Thurston was rarely troubled by petty jealousies, but the homage all
men paid to Helen awoke an unpleasant apprehension within him. He did
not know many of the men and women who laughed and talked in animated
groups; and at length found himself seated alone in a quiet corner.
The ground floor of the rambling house consisted of various rooms, some
of which opened with archways into one another. He could see into the
one most crowded, where Helen formed the center of an admiring circle.
There was no doubt that Miss Savine owed much to the race from which
she sprang on her mother's side. Dark beauty, grace of movement, and,
when she chose to indulge in it, vivacious speech, all betokened a
Latin extraction, while the slight haughtiness, which Thurston thought
wonderfully became her, was the dowry of a line of autocratic
landowners. That she was pleasant to look upon was proved by the
convincing testimony of other men's admiration as well as by his own
senses. Now, when the distance between them was in some respects
diminishing, she seemed even further away from him. In her presence he
felt himself a plain, unpolished man, and knew he would never shine in
the light play of wit and satire which characterized the society for
which she was fitted. He decided, also, that she had probably remained
unmarried because she could find no one who came up to her standard,
and feared that he himself would come very far beneath it. It appeared
doubtful that he could ever acquire the gentler virtues Helen had
described. Nevertheless, his face grew set as he determined that he
could prove his loyalty in the manner that best suited him--by serving
her father faithfully.

A capitalist, for whom Geoffrey had undertaken s