One Days Courtship | Page 9

with her."
"Won't you make the appeal, Jen?"
"No, I will not. In the first place she'll be sorry for you, because you
will make such a bungle of it. Trial is your only hope."
"Oh, if success lies in bungling, I will succeed."
"Don't be too sure. I suppose that man will be here by daybreak
to-morrow?"
"Not so bad as that, Jennie. You always try to put the worst face on
things. He won't be here till sunrise at the earliest."
"I will ask Eva to come down."
"You needn't hurry just because of me. Besides, I would like a few
moments to prepare myself for my fate. Even a murderer is given a
little time."
"Not a moment, Ed. We had better get this thing settled as soon as
possible."
"Perhaps you are right," he murmured, with a deep sigh. "Well, if we
Britishers, as Miss S. calls us, ever faced the Americans with as faint a
heart as I do now, I don't wonder we got licked."
"Don't say 'licked,' Ed."
"I believe it's historical. Oh, I see. You object to the word, not to the
allegation. Well, I won't cavil about that. All my sympathy just now is
concentrated on one unfortunate Britisher. My dear, let the sacrifice
begin."
Mrs. Mason went to the stairway and called--
"Eva, dear, can you come down for a moment? We want you to help us

out of a difficulty."
Miss Sommerton appeared smilingly, smoothing down the front of the
dress that had taken the place of the one she travelled in. She advanced
towards Mason with sweet compassion in her eyes, and that ill-fated
man thought he had never seen any one look so altogether
charming--excepting, of course, his own wife in her youthful days. She
seemed to have smoothed away all the Boston stiffness as she
smoothed her dress.
"Oh, Mr. Mason," she said, sympathetically, as she approached, "I am
so sorry anything has happened to trouble you, and I do hope I am not
intruding."
"Indeed, you are not, Miss Eva. In fact, your sympathy has taken away
half the trouble already, and I want to beg of you to help me off with
the other half."
A glance at his wife's face showed him that he had not made a bad
beginning.
"Miss Sommerton, you said you would like to kelp me. Now I am
going to appeal to you. I throw myself on your mercy."
There was a slight frown on Mrs. Mason's face, and her husband felt
that he was perhaps appealing too much.
"In fact, the truth is, my wife gave me----"
Here a cough interrupted him, and he paused and ran his hand through
his hair. "Pray don't mind me, Mr. Mason," said Miss Sommerton, "if
you would rather not tell----"
"Oh, but I must; that is, I want you to know."
He glanced at his wife, but there was no help there, so he plunged in
headlong.
"To tell the truth, there is a friend of mine who wants to go to the falls

tomorrow. He sails for Europe immediately, and has no other day."
The Boston rigidity perceptibly returned.
"Oh, if that is all, you needn't have had a moment's trouble. I can just as
well put off my visit."
"Oh, can you?" cried Mason, joyously.
His wife sat down in the rocking-chair with a sigh of despair. Her
infatuated husband thought he was getting along famously.
"Then your friends are not waiting for you at Quebec this time, and you
can stay a day or two with us."
"Eva's friends are at Montreal, Edward, and she cannot stay."
"Oh, then--why, then, to-morrow's your only day, too?"
"It doesn't matter in the least, Mr. Mason. I shall be most glad to put off
my visit to oblige your friend--no, I didn't mean that," she cried, seeing
the look of anguish on Mason's face, "it is to oblige you. Now, am I not
good?"
"No, you are cruel," replied Mason. "You are going up to the falls. I
insist on that. Let's take that as settled. The canoe is yours." He caught
an encouraging look from his wife. "If you want to torture me you will
say you will not go. If you want to do me the greatest of favours, you
will let my friend go in the canoe with you to the landing."
"What! go alone with a stranger?" cried Miss Sommerton, freezingly.
"No, the Indians will be there, you know."
"Oh, I didn't expect to paddle the canoe myself."
"I don't know about that. You strike me as a girl who would paddle her
own canoe pretty well."

"Now, Edward," said his wife. "He wants to take some photographs of
the falls, and----"
"Photographs? Why, Ed., I thought you said