ation.

"Come and keep the peace, Lady Merton! Here is my friend Mariette
playing the devil's advocate as usual. Anderson tells me you are
inclined to think well of us; so perhaps you ought to hear it."

Mariette smiled and bowed a trifle sombrely. He was plain and gaunt, but
he had the air of a _grand seigneur_, and was in fact a member of one of
the old seigneurial families of Quebec.

"I have been enquiring of Sir Michael, madam, whether he is quite happy
in his mind as to these Yankees that are now pouring into the new
provinces. He, like everyone else, prophesies great things for Canada;
but suppose it is an American Canada?"

"Let them come," said Anderson, with a touch of scorn. "Excellent stuff!
We can absorb them. We are doing it fast."

"Can you? They are pouring all over the new districts as fast as the
survey is completed and the railways planned. They bring capital, which
your Englishman doesn't. They bring knowledge of the prairie and the
climate, which your Englishmen haven't got. As for capital, America is
doing everything; financing the railways, the mines, buying up the
lands, and leasing the forests. British Columbia is only nominally
yours; American capital and business have got their grip firm on the
very vitals of the province."

"Perfectly true!"--put in the lumberman from Vancouver--"They have
three-fourths of the forests in their hands."

"No matter!" said Anderson, kindling. "There was a moment of
danger--twenty years ago. It is gone. Canada will no more be American
than she will be Catholic--with apologies to Mariette. These Yankees
come in--they turn Englishmen in six months--they celebrate Dominion Day
on the first of July, and Independence Day, for old sake's sake, on the
fourth; and their children will be as loyal as Toronto."

"Aye, and as dull!" said Mariette fiercely.

The conversation dissolved in protesting laughter. The Chief Justice,
Anderson, and the lumberman fell upon another subject. Philip and the
pretty English girl were flirting on the platform outside, Mariette
dropped into a seat beside Elizabeth.

"You know my friend, Mr. Anderson, madam?"

"I made acquaintance with him on the journey yesterday. He has been most
kind to us."

"He is a very remarkable man. When he gets into the House, he will be
heard of. He will perhaps make his mark on Canada."

"You and he are old friends?"

"Since our student days. I was of course at the French College--and he
at McGil