“If they had come in time, would you have left by this boat?” Katherine asked.  The question of winter quarters had been constantly talked of during the last week or two, but nothing had as yet been decided upon, owing to the delay in the coming of the two men with the expected mail.

“No, this boat will go straight to Liverpool.  The next will come round from Quebec, and return there before going to England; and that must be our way south, I think, unless we decide to return as we came, by river and trail.”

“We shall all miss you very much,” Katherine said regretfully; for the pleasant, kindly man whom she had feared so greatly at first had been such a good neighbour that his absence would be keenly felt.

“I should not like it if I were not missed; but I am not going for long, remember.  With the opening of the waters I shall be back again, to settle for good, I hope.  England is a fine country to be born in, but Canada is the land of my choice, and I have never yet seen a part of it that I like better than these Keewatin wilds; it is unspoiled nature here,” Mr. Selincourt said, rubbing his hands with great enthusiasm.

“Wait until you have tried a winter here, before speaking too positively about it; you may find the isolation too dreadful to be borne.  We who are used to it do not mind so much, but a person accustomed to daily papers and frequent posts would seem entirely out of the world,” she said, thinking of the long, long nights, when the wolves howled in the woods, and the silent weeks when the falls were frozen; and she wondered how this man, who had been brought up in cities, could bear to think of such a life.

He laughed in a cheery, unconvinced fashion.  “I have thought of all that:  but I can live without daily papers, or letters either, if need be; although, if Roaring Water Portage develops as I believe it is going to do, without doubt we shall get a regular postal service of a sort.  If it can’t be done any other way, I will do it myself.  Only I must have a bigger house, for in winter we should be very much cramped in that little hut over the river.”

Katherine nodded thoughtfully.  “Yes, you would want a big room for giving parties and entertainments.  Mary would make a lovely hostess, and the fisher folk would feel as if they were living in a new world.  Oily Dave’s dreadful whisky would have no chance at all against the attractions offered by your big house.”

Mr. Selincourt frowned.  “That drink-selling of his is the thorn among my roses of content, and I don’t see how to put it down just at present.  I can’t, from sheer decency, send the man packing, just after he has helped to save my daughter from a dreadful death.  Of course I know that he only helped, and that you could and would have done it without him if he had not been there, still, he was there, and I must remember it in his favour, although he has charged pretty heavily for his services.”