portsman, a man of some culture, with a manner that's
likely to impress such people. The lad's holding on to him and taking his
worst aspect for a copy, while Clarence seems willing to extend his
patronage."

"For some consideration?"

Nasmyth looked disturbed.

"It's unpleasant, but I can't help feeling that you're right. One way or
another, young Crestwick will have to pay his entrance fees." He rose and
stretched himself lazily. "I'll spoil my temper if I say any more about
it, and as we've had a long day I'm off to bed."

Lisle followed him from the room, but he was up early the next morning
and strolled down to the river while the light was creeping across the
moors and the dew lay thick upon the grass, thinking over what he had
heard on the previous night. It was his nature to be interested in almost
everything and he was curious to learn what he could of the people to
whom his father had belonged. In Canada he had, for the most part, met
only men of somewhat primitive habits and simple desires, grappling with
rock and forest, or with single purpose toiling to acquire wealth in the
new cities. What was more to the purpose, few of them were married. Now
he was thrown among a people not more intelligent--indeed, he thought
they were less endowed with practically useful knowledge--but in some
respects more complex, actuated by different and less obvious ambitions
and desires. He felt impelled to watch them, though he recognized that,
as Nasmyth had predicted, this might not be all. It was possible that
sooner or later he would be drawn into action.

He reached the stream at a spot where it flowed, still and clear, beneath
a birch wood. A few of the leaves were green, but most of them gleamed a
delicate saffron among the gray and silver stems, and the ground beneath
was flecked with yellow. Behind the trees rough, lichened rock and stony
slopes ran up to a bare ridge, silhouetted against the roseate glow of
the morning sky. The sun had not risen, the water lay in shadow; it was
very quiet and rather cold, and Lisle was surprised to see Millicent
Gladwyne picking her way cautiously over a bank of stones. It was only
her movements that betrayed her, for her neutral-tinted attire harmonized
with the background; but when she caught sight of him she left the foot
of the slope she was skirting and came directly toward him. He thought
she looked wonderfully fresh and wholesome, and he noticed that she
carried a small ca