“Oh! then perhaps I know them too,” cried Elizabeth, brightening.

He laughed again.

“The Dominion Parliament, I mean.”  He named two towns in Manitoba, while Lady Merton’s pink flush showed her conscious of having betrayed her English insularity.  “Shall I introduce you?”

“Please!—­if you find an opportunity.  It’s for my brother.  He’s recovering from an illness.”

“And you want to cheer him up.  Of course.  Well, he’ll want it to-day.”  The young man looked round him, at the line strewn with unsightly debris, the ugly cutting which blocked the view, and the mists up-curling from the woods; then at the slight figure beside him.  The corners of his mouth tried not to laugh.  “I am afraid you are not going to like Canada, if it treats you like this.”

“I’ve liked every minute of it up till now,” said Elizabeth warmly.  “Can you tell me—­I should like to know—­who all these people are?” She waved her hand towards the groups walking up and down.

“Well, you see,” said the Canadian after a moment’s hesitation, “Canada’s a big place!”

He looked round on her with a smile so broad and sudden that Elizabeth felt a heat rising in her cheeks.  Her question had no doubt been a little naive.

But the young man hurried on, composing his face quickly.

“Some of them, of course, are tourists like yourselves.  But I do know a few of them.  That man in the clerical coat, and the round collar, is Father Henty—­a Jesuit well known in Winnipeg—­a great man among the Catholics here.”

“But a disappointed one,” said Lady Merton.

The Canadian looked surprised.  Elizabeth, proud of her knowledge, went on: 

“Isn’t it true the Catholics hoped to conquer the Northwest—­and so—­with Quebec—­to govern you all?  And now the English and American immigration has spoilt all their chances—­poor things!”

“That’s about it.  Did they tell you that in Toronto?”

Elizabeth stiffened.  The slight persistent tone of mockery in the young man’s voice was beginning to offend her.

“And the others?” she said, without noticing his question.

It was the Canadian’s turn to redden.  He changed his tone.

“—­The man next him is a professor at the Manitoba University.  The gentleman in the brown suit is going to Vancouver to look after some big lumber leases he took out last year.  And that little man in the Panama hat has been keeping us all alive.  He’s been prospecting for silver in New Ontario—­thinks he’s going to make his fortune in a week.”

“Oh, but that will do exactly for my brother!” cried Elizabeth, delighted.  “Please introduce us.”