A minute after, and Justine was dragged into our boat, and was followed
by Mrs. Falchion, whose first words to Roscoe were: "It is not such a
meeting as one would plan."

And he replied: "I am glad no harm has come to you."

The man was duly helped in. A poor creature he was, to pass from this
tale as he entered it, ignominiously and finally here. I even hide
his nationality, for his race are generally more gallant. But he was
wealthy, had an intense admiration for Mrs. Falchion, and had managed
to secure her in his boat, to separate from the rest of the picnic
party--chiefly through his inefficient rowing.

Dripping with water as Mrs. Falchion was, she did not, strange to say,
appear at serious disadvantage. Almost any other woman would have
done so. She was a little pale, she must have felt miserable, but she
accepted Ruth Devlin's good offices--as did Justine Caron those of Mrs.
Revel--with much self-possession, scanning her face and form critically
the while, and occasionally turning a glance on Roscoe, who was now cold
and impassive. I never knew a man who could so banish expression
from his countenance when necessary. Speaking to Belle Treherne long
afterwards of Mrs. Falchion's self-possessed manner on this occasion,
and of how she rose superior to the situation, I was told that I must
have regarded the thing poetically and dramatically, for no woman could
possibly look self-possessed in draggled skirts. She said that I always
magnified certain of Mrs. Falchion's qualities.

That may be so, and yet it must be remembered that I was not predisposed
towards her, and that I wished her well away from where Roscoe was.

As for Justine Caron, she lay with her head on Mrs. Revel's lap,
and looked from beneath heavy eyelids at Roscoe with such gratitude
and--but, no, she is only a subordinate in the story, and not a chief
factor, and what she said or did here is of no vital consequence at this
moment! We rowed to a point near the confluence of the two rivers, where
we could leave our boats to be poled back through the rapids or portaged
past them.

On the way Mrs. Falchion said to Roscoe: "I knew you were somewhere in
the Rockies; and at Vancouver, when I came from San Francisco, I heard
of your being here. I had intended spending a month somewhere in the
mountains, so I came to Viking, and on to the summer hotel: but really
this is too exciting for recreation."

This was spoken with almost gay outward manner, but