ndian woman in exchange for a
couple of small packets of hairpins, which in England might have
fetched perhaps a halfpenny each, but in that remote district were
priced at a quarter of a dollar. It was the news of the arrival
which upset her so badly. She suffered tortures while she listened
to Mrs. Burton's eager talk about the Selincourts, of Mr.
Selincourt's kindly manner, and Miss Selincourt's graceful charm.

"Hush, hush!" she kept saying. "You will excite and worry Father
with all this talk of new people."

"I don't think so," Mrs. Burton replied. "See how peaceful he is,
and how little notice he takes of anything outside. He will not
remark any difference between Mr. Selincourt and Stee Jenkin,
except that he may find the former more interesting to talk to."

But Katherine shook her head, stealing many a glance at her father
while she ate her supper, and worrying lest the name of the man he
had wronged should stir some dim memory in his clouded mind, and
bring up some ghost from the hidden past, to turn his peaceful days
into a nightmare of unrest once more. The salmon might have been
sawdust for all the taste it had for her that night, and when
supper was done she hurried through the work which could not be
left, then, pleading weariness, went off to bed quite an hour
before her usual time.

Although she went to bed she could not sleep. She heard Jervis
come in and stay talking to Mrs. Burton. She also heard him say
that he was going to take Mr. and Miss Selincourt across to
Akimiski on the following day. Then Jervis left, her father went
with slow, faltering steps to his bed, and Nellie came in, but,
thinking her sister asleep, moved softly and did not speak, for
which Katherine was mutely grateful.

It was very early on the following morning when she saw the boat
with Mr. Selincourt and Mary slipping down the river, rowed by some
of the men who had brought them up from the lakes. So it would be
a day of respite, for the Selincourts would not be back until
evening, too late to go visiting among their neighbours, and
Katherine's spirits rose immediately, because there was one more
day to be happy in.

She had to go to Fort Garry that day, and started an hour before
noon, taking Phil with her as usual, and having her boat piled high
with skins taken in barter, bags of feathers, and other marketable
products. There was a short outlet to the bay from the river, a
weedy channel leading through fl