Part 44 (1/2)

”Yes,” she said, quietly. ”I heard. When did Mr. Brooke buy that stock?”

Devine understood the question, and once more the twinkle crept into his eyes.

”Well,” he said, ”it was quite a while before they found the silver. I don't know what he did it for. Now, I guess I've been here longer than I meant to stay. You'll excuse me, Katty.”

He seemed in haste to get away, and when the door closed behind him the two who were left looked at one another curiously. Mrs. Devine was evidently embarra.s.sed.

”I suppose,” she said, drily, ”you don't know why Brooke bought those shares, either?”

”I think I do,” said Barbara, with unusual quietness, though the color was very visible in her cheeks. ”He had a reason----”

She stopped abruptly, and there was once more an awkward silence, until she made a little impulsive gesture.

”Oh!” she said, sharply now, ”I feel horribly mean. He stayed there through the winter when they had scarcely anything to eat, and bought that stock when n.o.body else would have it or believed in the Dayspring.

Then he risked his life to save the Canopus, and when he came down, worn out and ill, I had only hard words for him.”

”Well,” said Mrs. Devine, drily, ”the sensation is probably good for you. You don't seem to remember that he also tried to jump the mine.”

Barbara turned towards her with a little sparkle in her eyes. ”Have you--never--done anything that was wrong?”

Mrs. Devine naturally saw the point of this, but while she considered her answer, Barbara, who had a good deal to think of, and scarcely felt equal to any further conversation just then, abruptly turned away.

Glancing at her watch, she went straight to a room, from the window of which she could see the road to the depot, for she knew the Atlantic express would shortly start, and she had not been told that Brooke was not coming back. Exactly what she meant to say to him she did not know, but she felt she could not let him go without, at least, a slight expression of her appreciation of what he had done. She knew that he would value it, and that it would go far to blot out the memory of past unkindness. He had certainly meant to jump the Canopus, and deceived her shamefully, which was far harder to forgive, for the realization of the fact that she had bestowed rather more than friendliness upon a man who was unworthy of it had its sting, but she scarcely remembered that now.

He had, it appeared, since then, sacrificed his fortune and broken down his strength, and that, considering the purpose which she fancied had impelled him, went a long way to condone his offences.

He, however, did not appear on the road, as she had expected; and she grew a trifle anxious when the tolling of a bell came up from the depot by the wharf as the big locomotive backed the long cars in. It was also significant that she did not notice that the room, which had no stove in it, was very cold. Then looking down she saw men with valises pa.s.s across an opening between the roofs and express wagons lurching along the uneven road. The train would start very soon, and there was at least one admission she must make, but the minutes were slipping by and still Brooke did not come. The man, it almost appeared, was content to go away without seeing her, though she felt compelled to admit that in view of what had pa.s.sed at their last meeting this was not altogether astonis.h.i.+ng. Still, the fact that he could do so hurt her, and she waited in a state of painful tension. A very few minutes would suffice for him to climb the hill, and even if there was no opportunity for an explanation, which now appeared very probable, a smile or even a glance might go a long way to set matters right.

The few minutes, however, slipped by as the rest had done, until at last the locomotive bell slowly clanged again, and the hoot of a whistle came up the hillside and was flung back by the pines. Then a puff of white smoke rolled up from the wharf, and Barbara turned away from the window with the crimson in her face as the cars swept through an opening between the cl.u.s.tering roofs. The train had gone, and the man would not know how far she had relented towards him. She could settle to nothing during the rest of the evening, and scarcely slept that night, though she naturally did not mention the fact when she and Mrs. Devine met at breakfast next morning. Instead, she took out a letter she had received a week earlier.

”It's from Hetty Hume, and the English mail goes out to-day,” she said.

”She suggests that I should come over and spend a few months with her. I really think we did what we could for her when she was here with the Major.”

Mrs. Devine took the letter. ”I fancy she wants you to go,” she said.

”She mentions that she has asked you several times already.”

Barbara appeared reflective. ”So she has,” she said. ”In fact, I think I'll go. The change will do me good.”

”Well,” said Mrs. Devine, ”I suppose you can afford it, but if you indulge in many changes of that kind you're not going to have very much of a dowry.”

”Do you think I need one?”

Mrs. Devine laughed as she glanced at her, but her face grew thoughtful again. ”Perhaps in your case it wouldn't be necessary, and though it is a very long way, I fancy that you might do worse than go to England and stay there while Hetty is willing to keep you.”

A little flush crept into Barbara's cheek, but she said quietly, ”I think I'll start on Sat.u.r.day.”

She did so, and it came about one night while the big train she travelled by swept across the rolling levels of the a.s.siniboian prairie that Brooke sat in his shanty at the Dayspring with Jimmy, who had just come down from the range, standing in front of him. The freighter had still now and then a difficulty in bringing them provisions in, and whenever Jimmy found the persistent plying of drill and hammer pall upon him he would go out and look out for a deer, though it was not always that he came back with one. On this occasion he brought a somewhat alarming tale instead.

”A big snow-slide must have come along since I was up on that slope before, and gouged out quite a canon for itself,” he said. ”Anyway, if it wasn't a snow-slide it was a cloudburst or a waterspout. They happen around when folks don't want them now and then.”