“Of course not,” she answered brightly, thrusting back the feeling of not wanting any more strangers to intrude themselves into that holy of holies which was to take place to-morrow.

“Mr. Clay is the——­I mean, he is a friend of the family, and he has been good to my mother,” Jervis went on, a curious air of constraint showing itself in him, which might have been due to nervousness, although he was not wont to be troubled in that fashion.  “Cousin Samuel died in February, and affairs have been at sixes and sevens since, wanting my presence in England.”

“You will have to go, then?” she asked quickly.

“We must start next week, I think,” he answered, with an emphasis on the pronoun that set her heart at rest.  “Mr. Clay is going on to Marble Island with the bishop to-morrow.  He wants to see if there is any boat there which will serve to take us round to Halifax when the Strait is open.  If not, we shall have to go by river and trail to Maxohama; but I want to spare you that fatigue if I can, for you have done quite enough portage work already.”

“I would just as soon face the portages as the sea-sickness which will inevitably be my portion going through the Strait,” she answered, with a laugh.  “But where do the troubles come in, Jervis?  Did your cousin die poor?”

“Time enough to hear about the troubles when to-morrow comes.  I am not going to worry you with them to-night.”

CHAPTER XXXI

The Wedding

The day was as gloriously fine as the most exacting of brides could have wished for, and by noon the company were beginning to assemble.

Some of the fishing boats were away, which was disappointing for the crews, although it is a little difficult to imagine how one extra person could have been squeezed into the congregation which later on crowded the store.

Jervis came over the river very early in the morning, and, with the help of Miles and Phil, got the store ready to serve as a church for the occasion.  Pails of lard with boards laid across served for seats in the centre of the floor; barrels of pork, of beans, and of flour made a sort of dais or high seat all round the walls, on which the boys and the younger men might be accommodated.  Rather a precarious kind of seat this was, as barrel heads were apt to give way, and then the luckless individual would be smothered with flour or bespattered with brine.

Mary also came across early, to help to dress the bride, and her mood was so wildly hilarious that Mrs. Burton felt it necessary to gently reprove her.

“Of course it is right to be happy and cheerful at a wedding, but there is always a strain of sadness somewhere to keep our spirits even.  And we can’t forget that Katherine is to go to England next week.”

“But she will be glad to go, and glad to come back; no one wants to stay in one place all her life, in these gadabout days,” Mary answered.  Then she produced a box and bade Katherine admire what she had brought her.