father, which I answered as well as I
could, but I soon found I couldn't keep my secret, so I just up and
told him all. He was very grave, but not cross. 'You need time to
think things over, and to get a right perspective,' he said, 'and our
home will be yours until you do.'

"We drove home the next day, up a wonderful river valley, deep into
the heart of the foothills, with the blue mountains always beckoning
and receding before us. Mrs. Arthurs was as surprised and delighted
as he had been, and I won't try to tell you all the things she said
to me. She cried a little, too, and I'm afraid I came near helping
her a bit. You know the Arthurs lost their little girl before they
left Manitoba, and they have had no other children. They both seemed
just hungry.

"There's nothing so very fine about their home, except the spirit
that's inside it. I can't describe it, but it's there--a certain
leisurely way of doing things, a sense that they have made work their
servant instead of their master. And still they're certainly not
lazy, and they've accomplished more than we have. When they left
Manitoba in the early days, discouraged with successive frosts, they
came right out here into the foothills with their few head of stock.
Now their cattle are numbered in thousands, and they have about a
township of land. And still they seem to live for the pure happiness
they find in life, and only to think of their property as a secondary
consideration.

"Now I really must close. Mrs. Arthurs sends a note, and I'm quite
sure it's an invitation. Oh, mother, what could be lovelier! Now
don't say you can't. Father has plenty of money; let him hire a
housekeeper for a while. The change will do him good.

"Love to you, dearest, and to Allan, if he still thinks of me.

"BEULAH.

"P.S.--I forgot to mention that Jim Travers left Plainville on the
same train as I did. He could hardly believe his eyes when he saw me
there. I told him I was going West on a visit, but I don't know how
much he guessed. Said he was going West himself to take up land, but
he wanted to call on some friends first, and he got off a few
stations from Plainville. Between you and me, I believe he changed
his plan so that the incident--our being on the train together, you
know--could not be misunderstood if the neighbours got to know of it.
It would be just like Jim to do that."

With Beulah's letter was a short but earnest note from Lilian
Arthurs, assuring the mothe