Then Shillito was entitled to defend himself, and to find the way he talked about would not be difficult.
Barbara knitted her brows and began to think.
At lunch Mrs.Cartwright told her they were going to join the Vernons in the woods and she acquiesced.

Two or three days afterwards they started, and at the station she gave Cartwright her hand with a smiling glance, but Cartwright knew his step-daughter and was not altogether satisfied.
Barbara did not sulk; when one tried to baffle her she fought.
The Vernons' camp was like others Winnipeg people pitch in the lonely woods that roll west from Fort William to the plains.

It is a rugged country pierced by angry rivers and dotted by lakes, but a gasolene launch brought up supplies, the tents were large and double-roofed, and for a few weeks one could play at pioneering without its hardships.

The Vernons were hospitable, the young men and women given to healthy sport, and Mrs.Cartwright, watching Barbara fish and paddle on the lake, banished her doubts.

For herself she did not miss much; the people were nice, and the cooking was really good.
When two weeks had gone, Grace and Barbara sat one evening among the stones by a lake.