Part 18 (2/2)
”Oh, but really it was not I who saved him, but Phil! I should have been too heavy to walk three steps across thatfast,” Katherine answered, with a low, nervous laugh
But Mary was not to be put off in this fashi+on, and she went on, her voice fluttering a little because of the e doith a resolute hand: ”I knoas your brother ent out on the swamp and put the rope round my father, but I also know that it was really you who planned the rescue and pulled my father out I cannot speak of it all as I would wish, and words are too faint and poor to express all I feel; but frorateful, and all my life I shall be in your debt”
A sob came up in Katherine's throat, and her heart fluttered wildly, for she was thinking of that dark secret from the past which her father had told her about, and she ondering if the work of to-day would in any sense help to wipe off that old score of wrongdoing which stood to her father's account
”It is only one's duty to help those who are in difficulties,” she said, when she couldin her throat ”I hope Mr Selincourt is not much the worse for his accident I was afraid that he was terribly shaken Hethe ti now, peacefully as an infant Mr Ferrars, who is with him, says that his pulse is steady and his heart quiet, so it really looks as if the after effects may not be very bad,” Mary answered Then she said iht when you aiting for the dogs to help you to e My heart went out to you then, and I wondered should we ever be friends; but to-day has settled that question so far as I am concerned, and noe ht up to the roots of her hair A year ago how happy such words would have lad she would have been of the friendshi+p of Mary Selincourt! But now all the pleasure in such intercourse was checked and clouded, because she was perforce obliged to sail under false colours
The rosy flush faded from cheeks, neck, and brow, and her face hite and weary as she answered coldly: ”It is very kind of you to talk of friendshi+p, but I fancy there is too much difference in our lives to admit of much intercourse I have to work very hard just now, and I have little or no leisure”
Mary winced as if Katherine had struck her a blow She was not used to having her offers of friendshi+p flouted in this fashi+on; but she was too irl in the shabby frock to even drea the treatment of which poor Katherine was already secretly ashamed
”I know that you have to work very hard,” Mary said gently ”But if you kne e, I think you would not refuse to let me see as much of you as your ill allow”
Katherine had to come down froracefully enough ”If you care to see me at my work, webravely, although her face was still very pale; ”but work and I are such close comrades that only Sunday finds us apart”
”Then I will have you and your work all the week, and you without your work on Sundays,” laughed Mary, afterwards saying good night and going back across the river to her father again
CHAPTER XVII
'Duke Radford's New Friend
Mr Selincourt suffered but little ill effects froer of swaot up at his usual hour, and after breakfast had himself rowed across the river, and paid a visit to the store Early as it was, Katherine and Phil had already started for an Indian encampment on Ochre Lake, so Mr Selincourt found only Miles in the store, and he was busy sweeping dead flies fro freshof another batch
”Hullo, young man! is it you who pulled me out of the mud the other day?” he asked
”No, sir,” replied Miles pro on soft spots It was Phil who put the rope round you, but Katherine pulled you out”
”A plucky pair they were too, for it must have been difficult work Are they at hoazed round the store, and thought what a bare-looking place it was
”No, they started for Ochre Lake a good tiet it done in theyou anything this , sir?” Miles asked, with his very best business manner, which always had its due effect on the Seal Cove people
Mr Selincourt laughed ”I am afraid my wants would have to beif it were poverty on the part of the Radfords which kept the stock so low
”We are not so nearly cleared out as you would think,” Miles answered, in a confidential tone ”We always like the shelves to look thin at this time of the year; then when the first shi+p all our surplus stock out of the cellar, and it sells nearly as fast as we can serve it out”
”Well, that is one way of doing business; a shreay too,” re his head ”I shouldn't wonder if you h What are you going to be when you grow up?”
”A storekeeper; this store keeper, if Katherine can keep the business going until I'h to take the work over,” Miles answered, with the same promptness as had arrested Mr Selincourt's attention at the first
”It is a hard life for a girl, I should think,” he said, as he sat down on a sugar barrel and watched Miles finishi+ng with the traps
”Yes, it is very hard You see, there is soup and down river, and all that sort of thing I couldthe skins, the feathers, and the fish which we take in barter from the Indians They wouldn't acceptcheated by the papoose;” and the boy threw so hed aloud
”How do you e when the Indians come here to buy and your sister is away?” he asked
”Oh, I just call Nellie, that is Mrs Burton, you know! She doesn't know a thing about business, and is ignorant as a baby about the value of skins, but she is grown-up, so they believe what she says, only I have to tell her first”