ld think they'd come--I should think they'd be glad. Your cook,
Yerkes, is famous on the line. I know two of the people playing. They
are Members of Parliament."

"Oh! then perhaps I know them too," cried Elizabeth, brightening.

He laughed again.

"The Dominion Parliament, I mean." He named two towns in Manitoba, while
Lady Merton's pink flush showed her conscious of having betrayed her
English insularity. "Shall I introduce you?"

"Please!--if you find an opportunity. It's for my brother. He's
recovering from an illness."

"And you want to cheer him up. Of course. Well, he'll want it to-day."
The young man looked round him, at the line strewn with unsightly
debris, the ugly cutting which blocked the view, and the mists
up-curling from the woods; then at the slight figure beside him. The
corners of his mouth tried not to laugh. "I am afraid you are not going
to like Canada, if it treats you like this."

"I've liked every minute of it up till now," said Elizabeth warmly. "Can
you tell me--I should like to know--who all these people are?" She waved
her hand towards the groups walking up and down.

"Well, you see," said the Canadian after a moment's hesitation,
"Canada's a big place!"

He looked round on her with a smile so broad and sudden that Elizabeth
felt a heat rising in her cheeks. Her question had no doubt been a
little naive.

But the young man hurried on, composing his face quickly.

"Some of them, of course, are tourists like yourselves. But I do know a
few of them. That man in the clerical coat, and the round collar, is
Father Henty--a Jesuit well known in Winnipeg--a great man among the
Catholics here."

"But a disappointed one," said Lady Merton.

The Canadian looked surprised. Elizabeth, proud of her knowledge, went
on:

"Isn't it true the Catholics hoped to conquer the Northwest--and
so--with Quebec--to govern you all? And now the English and American
immigration has spoilt all their chances--poor things!"

"That's about it. Did they tell you that in Toronto?"

Elizabeth stiffened. The slight persistent tone of mockery in the young
man's voice was beginning to offend her.

"And the others?" she said, without noticing his question.

It was the Canadian's turn to redden. He changed his tone.

"--The man next him is a professor at the Manitoba University. The
gentleman in the brown suit is going to Vancouver to look after some big
lumber leases he took out last year. And that little man