Part 3 (2/2)
He laughed again.
”The Dominion Parliament, I mean.” He named two towns in Manitoba, while Lady Merton's pink flush showed her conscious of having betrayed her English insularity. ”Shall I introduce you?”
”Please!--if you find an opportunity. It's for my brother. He's recovering from an illness.”
”And you want to cheer him up. Of course. Well, he'll want it to-day.”
The young man looked round him, at the line strewn with unsightly debris, the ugly cutting which blocked the view, and the mists up-curling from the woods; then at the slight figure beside him. The corners of his mouth tried not to laugh. ”I am afraid you are not going to like Canada, if it treats you like this.”
”I've liked every minute of it up till now,” said Elizabeth warmly. ”Can you tell me--I should like to know--who all these people are?” She waved her hand towards the groups walking up and down.
”Well, you see,” said the Canadian after a moment's hesitation, ”Canada's a big place!”
He looked round on her with a smile so broad and sudden that Elizabeth felt a heat rising in her cheeks. Her question had no doubt been a little nave.
But the young man hurried on, composing his face quickly.
”Some of them, of course, are tourists like yourselves. But I do know a few of them. That man in the clerical coat, and the round collar, is Father Henty--a Jesuit well known in Winnipeg--a great man among the Catholics here.”
”But a disappointed one,” said Lady Merton.
The Canadian looked surprised. Elizabeth, proud of her knowledge, went on:
”Isn't it true the Catholics hoped to conquer the Northwest--and so--with Quebec--to govern you all? And now the English and American immigration has spoilt all their chances--poor things!”
”That's about it. Did they tell you that in Toronto?”
Elizabeth stiffened. The slight persistent tone of mockery in the young man's voice was beginning to offend her.
”And the others?” she said, without noticing his question.
It was the Canadian's turn to redden. He changed his tone.
”--The man next him is a professor at the Manitoba University. The gentleman in the brown suit is going to Vancouver to look after some big lumber leases he took out last year. And that little man in the Panama hat has been keeping us all alive. He's been prospecting for silver in New Ontario--thinks he's going to make his fortune in a week.”
”Oh, but that will do exactly for my brother!” cried Elizabeth, delighted. ”Please introduce us.”
And hurrying back into the car she burst upon the discontented gentleman within. Philip, who was just about to sally forth into the damp, against the entreaties of his servant, and take his turn at shying stones at a bottle on the line, was appeased by her report, and was soon seated, talking toy speculation, with a bronzed and brawny person, who watched the young Englishman, as they chatted, out of a pair of humorous eyes.
Philip believed himself a great financier, but was not in truth either very shrewd or very daring, and his various coups or losses generally left his exchequer at the end of the year pretty much what it had been the year before. But the stranger, who seemed to have staked out claims at one time or another, across the whole face of the continent, from Klond.y.k.e to Nova Scotia, kept up a mining talk that held him enthralled; and Elizabeth breathed freely.
She returned to the platform. The scene was _triste_, but the rain had for the moment stopped. She hailed an official pa.s.sing by, and asked if there was any chance of their soon going on. The man smiled and shook his head.
Her Canadian acquaintance, who was standing near, came up to the car as he heard her question.
”I have just seen a divisional superintendent. We may get on about nine o'clock to-night.”
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