“Oh, the usual things!  Mrs. M’Kree said she thought they would make a lovely pair:  for though Mary isn’t pretty, she is very distinguished; and Mr. Ferrars has a way of carrying himself which makes me think he must come from a very good family indeed.  I noticed that Mary’s manner was very different to him to-day, and from the way he treated her it looked almost as if they had come to an understanding.”  Mrs. Burton’s air was one of beaming satisfaction now, for she liked Jervis Ferrars quite well enough to be glad there was a chance of his marrying a rich wife, and so being lifted out of the fierce struggle with narrow means.

Katherine’s heart felt sick and cold within her.  She remembered what Mary had said about the boon asked by Jervis, which had been denied, and the denial regretted ever since.  Probably that rescue from the tidehole had given Jervis the courage and the right to ask his boon again, and this time Mary would know her own heart too well to refuse happiness, even though it came to her at the hands of a poor man.

She was glad to turn out early next morning and go with Phil to do the “back-ache” portage, because it took her away from any likelihood of an encounter with Mary, who would probably be brimming over with happiness.

“It is quite natural that she should feel like that, and I am very glad for her,” Katherine announced to herself in a defiant tone, as she loaded packages of groceries and bundles of dry goods on to the dogs in the morning, for them to carry over the portage to the boathouse above the falls.

It never once occurred to her that she could have made a mistake, or that she had jumped to wrong conclusions in the matter.  She was so used to making up her mind on all sorts of subjects without any waste of time, that naturally she decided she was right in this thing also.  The dogs trotted up the portage path with a hearty goodwill, for they had the sense to know that the journey was not a long one and that their work would soon be over.  There were only three of them this morning, for Hero was at the house over the river.

Katherine and Phil followed the dogs.  They also carried burdens, and, as the portage path was steep, they were glad not to waste their breath in talking while they toiled up the hill.  The last dog, which walked just in front of Katherine, carried two wooden boxes, filled with marmalade for Mrs. M’Kree, and it was funny to see how careful the creature was to keep right in the middle of the path, so that its burden did not bump against the rocks which projected on either side of the narrow trail.

“Good dog!  You shall have a smear of marmalade on your biscuit for supper to-night, if I don’t forget it,” Katherine said, when the boathouse was reached without any danger to the consignment of marmalade.

“Pity to waste good stuff like that on a creature which can’t appreciate it.  Now, I am very gone on marmalade,” remarked Phil, as he put the two boxes into the boat.