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Updated: July 16, 2025
"No," said Seaforth, with a sudden change in his voice which Miss Deringham noticed. "There's a man in from the settlement, and Hallam's selling Townshead up to-day according to his tale." Alton scrambled swiftly along the log. "Just one question, Charley. Quite sure nobody came here with any message for me about it that you forgot?" he said.
You see, I never had a great deal." "Harry?" said Miss Townshead, with a trace of astonishment that was not quite free from disdain. Seaforth moved his head. "Yes," he said. "What I have told you I told him, and he seemed to think that one could live even that kind of thing down. He is, you see, a somewhat exacting man, and that gave me the hope that you would be as merciful."
They were clear brown eyes, and it was characteristic that they almost immediately brightened into a smile, for while the girl's face resembled her father's in its refinement, there was courage in it in place of weariness. "I am afraid I do, though I try not to, and am generally able," she said. Townshead sighed. "The young are fortunate, for they can forget," he said.
"It is," he said, "a pity that I have so much, because on the two occasions I took an interest in it I lost a good deal of money. There is nothing for me to do here, at least. I cannot chop big trees." "No," said the girl. "But have you nothing in contemplation?" Townshead shook his head as though he were tired of the subject. "No," he said resignedly.
The room was also bare and somewhat comfortless, for the land was too poor to furnish its possessor with more than necessities, and Townshead not the man to improve it much. He lay in an old leather chair beside the stove, a slender, grey-haired man with the worn look of one whose burden had been too heavy for him.
His face had frightened her, and it had never wholly lost the look she saw upon it then, for Townshead was lacking in fibre, and had found that a fondness for horses and some experience of amateur cattle-breeding on a small and expensive scale was a very poor preparation for the grim reality of ranching in Western Canada.
"Now I came across Miss Townshead, and she wasn't looking well or happy. We'll call upon her father when we get through what we have to do." Seaforth, who appeared disturbed, would have gone sooner, but it was afternoon when they strolled round the outskirts of the city, and his face was somewhat grim as they entered the Alsatia, which is the usual adjunct of such places.
I don't mind admitting that I looked forward to your visit with apprehension, but I now fancy you will not jar upon me so much as I expected." The stranger glanced at Miss Townshead, who, though she wished to, could not quite check a smile. He was very young, and had a pleasant face. "That was very kind of you," he said. "Now, I think the least that I can do is to retire to the barn or stable.
Nellie Townshead appeared very collected as she glanced in his direction, for she had a good courage, and had been taught already that when an issue is unavoidable it is better to face it boldly. "One would scarcely have fancied that was your object." "No," said Alton very quietly.
Nellie Townshead afterwards wondered a little at her composure and temerity, but she fancied she knew what had prompted the man, and, because it hurt her horribly, all the pride she had came to her assistance, and in place of embarrassment she was sensible of a desire to test him to the uttermost.
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