r, left it shortly
before my correspondent learned that he had been employed there, and
all the latter could tell me was that an unknown prospector had nursed
him until he died."

Wyllard, who said nothing, took out a watch and the clasp of a
workman's belt from his pocket, and laid them gently on Mrs.
Radcliffe's knee. He saw her eyes fill, and turned his head away.

"I feel that you may blame me for not writing sooner, but it was only a
very little while ago that I was able to trace you, and then it was
only by a very curious--coincidence," he said presently.

This was the most apposite word that occurred to him, for he did not
consider it advisable to mention the photograph. It seemed to him that
the girl would not like it. Nor, though he was greatly tempted, did he
care to make inquiries concerning her just then. In another moment or
two the Major spoke again.

"If I can make your stay here pleasanter in any way I should be
delighted," he said. "If you will take up your quarters with us I will
send down to the inn for your things."

Wyllard excused himself, but when the lady urged him at least to dine
with them on the following evening he appeared to consider.

"The one difficulty is that I don't know yet whether I shall be engaged
then," he explained. "As it happens, I've a message for Miss Ismay,
and I wrote offering to call upon her at any convenient hour. So far I
have heard nothing from her."

"She's away," Mrs. Radcliffe informed him. "They have probably sent
your letter on to her. I had a note from her yesterday, however, and
expect her here to-morrow. You have met some friends of hers in
Canada?"

"Gregory Hawtrey," said Wyllard. "I have promised to call upon his
people, too."

He saw Major Radcliffe glance at his wife, and the faint gleam in the
latter's eyes.

"Well," she said, "if you will promise to come I will send word over to
Agatha."

Wyllard agreed to this, and went away a few minutes later. He noticed
the tact and consideration with which his new friends had refrained
from expressing any sign of the curiosity he fancied they naturally
felt, for Mrs. Radcliffe's face had suggested that she understood the
situation. The latter was, however, commencing to appear a little more
difficult to him. It was, it seemed, his task to explain to a girl
brought up among such people delicately what she must be prepared to
face as a farmer's wife in Western Canada. He was not sure that