should take Nasmyth, too; he's a man to be depended on. You could start
in the early summer next year."

She smiled at his eagerness; but he suddenly grew thoughtful.

"It's curious how events seem to have started beside those lonely
river-reaches among the rocks," he remarked. "It was there that I got to
know Nasmyth, and through him I met you. It was there that I learned
something about your brother and Clarence Gladwyne. The drama began in
those wilds and I've a feeling that it will end among them."

"The drama?" she queried, and he was conscious that he had made a slip.

"Well," he answered, "before we crossed the big divide I wasn't aware of
your existence, and I'd only a hazy idea that I might come to England
some day. Now, if I may say it, I've joined your group of friends and
entered into their lives. One feels it can't have sprung from nothing; it
isn't blind chance."

She mused for a few moments.

"It's strange," she asserted, "but I've had something of the same
feeling. You seem to have become a part of things, a connecting link
between us all--Mrs. Gladwyne, Clarence, Nasmyth, and even young
Crestwick. One could almost fancy that some mysterious agency were
working upon us through you."

He did not wish her to pursue this train of thought too far.

"I've promised to take Jim Crestwick back with me," he said. "I'm going
as soon as I'm fit to get about."

"Going back, in a few weeks?"

"Yes. In many ways, I'm sorry; but I've had some letters that show it's
needful. Business calls."

She made no reply for some moments. There was no doubt that she would
miss him badly, and she recalled the strange and tense anxiety of which
she had been conscious when he had fallen at the hurdles.

"We have come to look upon you as one of us," she told him simply.
"Somehow we never contemplated your going away, and now it seems an
almost unnatural thing."

"It would be, if I broke off the connection with my English friends, but
I think that can't be done. We're to see more of each other; I'm to be
your guide when you come out next year."

"It's very likely that I shall come."

She left him shortly after this and walked home in a thoughtful mood,
regretting his approaching departure and pondering over what he had said.
With reflection it became clearer that she had entertained the same idea
as his. He and she and the others he mentioned were not acting and
reacting upon one another casually; it was all a part