And with her hands around her knees she sat motionless and still.  Anderson threw himself down beside her.  Fragrance, colour, warmth; the stir of an endless self-sufficient life; the fruitfulness and bounty of the earth; these things wove their ancient spells about them.  Every little rush of the breeze seemed an invitation and a caress.

Presently she thanked him for having brought her there, and said something of remembering it in England.

“As one who will never see it again?” He turned and faced her smiling.  But behind his frank, pleasant look there was something from which she shrank.

“I shall hardly see it, again,” she said hesitating.  “Perhaps that makes it the more—­the more touching.  One clings to it the more—­the impression—­because it is so fugitive—­will be so soon gone.”

He was silent a moment, then said abruptly: 

“And the upshot of all this is, that you could not imagine living in Canada?”

She started.

“I never said so.  Of course I could imagine living in Canada!”

“But you think, for women, the life up here—­in the Northwest—­is too hard.”

She looked at him timidly.

“That’s because I look at it from my English point of view.  I am afraid English life makes weaklings of us.”

“No—­not of you!” he said, almost scornfully.  “Any life that seemed to you worth while would find you strong enough for it.  I am sure of that.”

Elizabeth smiled and shrugged her shoulders.  He went on—­almost as though pleading with her.

“And as to our Western life—­which you will soon have left so far behind—­it strains and tests the women—­true—­but it rewards them.  They have a great place among us.  It is like the women of the early races.  We listen to them in the house, and on the land; we depend on them indoors and out; their husbands and their sons worship them!”

Elizabeth flushed involuntarily; but she met him gaily.

“In England too!  Come and see!”

“I shall probably be in England next spring.”

Elizabeth made a sudden movement.

“I thought you would be in political life here!”

“I have had an offer—­an exciting and flattering offer.  May I tell you?”

He turned to her eagerly; and she smiled her sympathy, her curiosity.  Whereupon he took a letter from his pocket—­a letter from the Dominion Prime Minister, offering him a mission of inquiry to England, on some important matters connected with labour and emigration.  The letter was remarkable, addressed to a man so young, and on the threshold of his political career.

Elizabeth congratulated him warmly.

“Of course you will come to stay with us!”

It was his turn to redden.

“You are very kind,” he said formally.  “As you know, I shall have everything to learn.”

“I will show you our farms!” cried Elizabeth, “and all our dear decrepit life—­our little chessboard of an England.”