“She seemed surprised, as if she didn’t think it much of a reason for Charnock letting her go.”

“Frankly, I don’t think it was.”

“You haven’t been to Canada.  The life is hard.”

“It doesn’t seem to have broken down your health or nerve.”

“That’s different.  A man gets used to hardships and discomfort.  They’re sometimes bracing.”

“A very masculine attitude!  Then men alone have pluck and endurance?”

“There are two kinds of pluck,” Festing rejoined.  “I dare say you surpass us in the moral kind—­I’m sure Miss Dalton has more than Charnock.  But there’s the other; physical courage, and if you like, physical strength.”

Muriel looked amused.  “And you imagine Helen is deficient there?  Well, I suppose you don’t know she’s the best tennis player in the county and a daring rock-climber.  Girls are taking to mountaineering now, you know.  But are you going back to the Daltons?”

Festing thought she gave him a keen glance, but answered steadily:  “I am going back, but not for some time.  I want to go, but it might be kinder if I kept away.”

“Well, it’s a very proper feeling and you’re rather nice.  But you talked about going to see the mountains for a few days.  When do you start?”

“I don’t know yet.  Everything here is so charming, and I’m getting the habit of lazy enjoyment.  It will need an effort to go away.”

“You’re certainly nice,” Muriel rejoined, smiling.  “However, you might tell me when you do think of starting.  I don’t want you to be away when we have arranged something to amuse you; and then, as I know the mountains, I can indicate an interesting tour.  You might miss much if you didn’t know where to go and what you ought to see.”

Festing promised, and she left him and went back to the house with a thoughtful smile that hinted that she had begun to make an amusing plan.  Muriel was romantic and rather fond of managing her friends’ affairs for their good.

CHAPTER VII

HELEN TAKES THE LEAD

Festing was glad to sit down when he reached the bottom of a chasm that divided the summits of two towering fells.  He had crossed the higher of the two without much trouble except for a laborious scramble over large, rough stones, but the ascent of the other threatened to be difficult.  It rose in front, a wall of splintered crag, seamed by deep gullies, for the strata was tilted up nearly perpendicular.  All the gullies were climbed by expert mountaineers, but this needed a party and a rope, and the other way, round the shoulder of the great rock, was almost as hard.  Festing knew the easiest plan was to descend a neighboring hollow, from which he would find a steep path to the top.

Lighting his pipe, he glanced at his watch.  It was three o’clock in the afternoon, and having been on his feet since breakfast, he felt tired.  The nails he had had driven into his light American boots hurt his feet, and the boots were much the worse for the last few days’ wear.  Muriel had carefully planned the trip, and then delayed his start by a week because she wanted to take him to a tennis party.  Since he could not play tennis much, Festing did not see why she had done so, but agreed when she insisted.