To-night she sauntered at a leisurely pace with no burdens at all; even the cares of the day were thrust into the background for the moment, and she was genuinely lighthearted and happy.

It was pleasant, too, to sit at ease while Jervis pulled the boat up river with long, swinging strokes that never suggested tired arms in even the remotest connection; and if they did not talk much, it was only because the river and the sunset seemed suggestive of silence.

They had passed the second portage, and waved a greeting to Mrs.M'Kree, who was sitting at ease in her garden while Astor lounged beside her.

Then Jervis began to talk about himself, which was unusual, the subject apparently having but little interest for him in a general way.
"I have been writing to my mother to-day.

It seems strange to think we shall have a post out from here once a month all the summer," he remarked, rowing slower now, as if he were tired of violent exercise, and desired to take things easy.
"How glad your mother will be to get the letters!" exclaimed Katherine, wondering how the poor woman had borne the weary waiting of the past weeks.
"It has been hard on her, poor little Mother!" he said softly, then went on with a hardness in his tone that grated on the ears of the listener: "Few women have had to know greater contrasts in life than my mother.