commanded him to desist on the moment. I don't quite know what came
next, though something was said about a lifted riding-crop, but within
the week Clarence started for Canada."

"He abandoned the attempt to find water?"

Ainslie smiled.

"The farmer dug a well in that meadow, and I believe he uses it still.
He held a lease, and Weston couldn't get rid of him."

He looked rather hard at Ida, and was slightly astonished at the
sparkle in her eyes.

"I'm afraid I've been somewhat talkative," he said.

"No," Ida assured him, and he saw that she was stirred. "Thank you for
telling me."

He moved away; and by and by Arabella Kinnaird and one of the other
women approached the seat. Arabella left her companion a moment, and
made a little whimsical gesture as she met Ida's gaze.

"I've been throwing away a good many blandishments on Weston," she
observed. "He appears prudently reticent on the subject of his
relations, and if he has any in Canada, it's evident that he isn't
proud of them. Still, I haven't abandoned the amiable intention of
extorting a little more information from him."

CHAPTER XVIII

WESTON'S ADVOCATE

A week had passed when Weston, who apparently had some business with
Kinnaird, drove over to Scarthwaite again. This time he brought a
daughter, who, it appeared, lived for the most part with some more
prosperous members of the family. Arriving a little before lunch, they
remained until the evening. As it happened, Miss Weston displayed what
she evidently considered a kindly interest in Ida, and graciously
patronized her as a stranger and a Colonial, who was necessarily
ignorant of a good many of the little amenities of life in the old
country.

Her intentions were no doubt laudable, but the methods she adopted to
set the stranger at her ease were not those most likely to endear the
insular English to their cousins across the Atlantic. Ida, to begin
with, had not only a spice of temper but also no great reverence for
forms and formulas, and the people that she was accustomed to meeting
were those who had set their mark upon wide belts of forest and long
leagues of prairie. At first she was quietly amused by the patronage
of a woman whose right to bestow it consisted apparently in an
acquaintance with English people of station, and some proficiency at
bridge; but by and by her condescension grew wearisome, and finally
exasperating. Miss Weston, however, could not have been expected to
rec