ut
of the water ten feet in the air, darting and plunging in wide circles,
like the mad thing she probably was.

"It serves me rightly, Miss Grant. I professed to be able to fix your
tackle and yet I did not examine that spoon before putting it into use.
It has probably been lying in a rusty condition for a year or so.

"Well,--we cannot try again to-night, unless we row in for a fresh
spoon-hook."

"Oh!--let us stop now. We have more fish already than we really
require."

"Shall I row you in?" I asked.

"Do you wish to go in?"

"Oh, dear, no! I could remain here forever,--at least until I get
hungry and sleepy," I laughed.

"All right!" she cried, "let us row up into the Bay and watch the sun
go down."

I pulled along leisurely, facing my fair companion, who was now
reclining in the stern, with the sinking sun shining in all its golden
glory upon the golden glory of her.

Moment by moment, the changing colours in the sky were altering the
colours on the smooth waters to harmonise: a lake of bright yellow
gold, then the gold turned to red, a sea of blood; from red to purple,
from purple to the palest shade of heliotrope; and, as the sun at last
dipped in the far west, the distant mountains threw back that same
attractive shade of colour.

It was an evening for kind thoughts.

We glided up the Bay, past Jake Meaghan's little home; still further
up, then into the lagoon, where not a ripple disturbed that placid
sheet of water: where the trees and rocks smiled down upon their own
mirrored reflections.

We grew silent as the nature around us, awed by the splendours of the
hushing universe upon which we had been gazing.

"It is beautiful! oh, so beautiful!" said my companion at last, awaking
from her dreaming. "Let us stay here awhile. I cannot think to go
home yet."

She threw her sweater-coat round her shoulders, for, even in the height
of summer, the air grows chilly on the west coast as the sun goes down.

"You may smoke, Mr. Bremner. I know you are aching to do so."

I thanked her, pulled in my oars and lighted my pipe.

Mary Grant sat there, watching me in friendly interest, smiling in
amusement in the charming way only she could smile.

"Do you know, I sometimes wonder," she said reflectively, "why it is
that a man of your education, your prospective attainments, your
ability, your physical strength and mental powers should keep to the
bypaths of life, such as we find up here, when your