He showed me my place at the long narrow table; drew out the chair for his mother and, when she was seated, spoke to the dogs who, with perfect decorum, sedately settled themselves on their haunches in twos, one on each side of Mrs. Macleod at the head of the table, one on each side of her son at her right. They looked for all the world like the Barye bronzes in the Metropolitan Museum! After all, I could not get rid of all the associations, nor did this one bring with it anything but pleasure, that the great city had yielded me this much of instruction. I was looking at the dogs and about to speak, when I noticed that Mrs. Macleod had bent her head and folded her hands. I caught Jamie looking at me out of the corner of his eye. For the first time in my life I heard "grace" said at a table. I felt myself grow red; I was embarrassed. Jamie saw my confusion and began to chat in his own bright way. "I asked mother if she had written definitely what we 'd asked you up here for into the wilds of Canada." "Now, Jamie! You will be giving Miss--Marcia," she corrected herself, "to understand I asked her here under false pretence. To tell the truth, I did n't quite see how to explain myself at such a distance." She spoke with perfect sincerity. "Moreover, Doctor Rugvie told me that Mrs. Beaseley was absolutely trustworthy, and I relied on her--but you don't know Doctor Rugvie?" "Of him, yes; I saw him once in the hospital." "So you 've been in the hospital too?" It was Jamie who put that question, and something of the eager light in his face faded as he asked it. "Yes, last spring; I was there ten weeks." "Then you know," he said quite simply, and looked at me with inquiring eyes. Why or how I was enabled to read the significance of that simple statement, I cannot say; I know only in part. But I do know that my eyes must have answered his, for I saw in them a reflection of my own thought: We both, then, have known what it is, to draw near to the threshold of that door that opens only outward. "You don't indeed look strong; I noticed that the first thing," said Mrs. Macleod. "Oh, but I am," I assured her; "you will see when you have work for me. I can cook, and sew--and chop wood, and even saw a little, if necessary." Mrs. Macleod looked at me in absolute amazement, and Jamie burst into a hearty laugh. It was good to hear, and, without in the slightest knowing why, I laughed too--at what I did not know, nor much care. It was good to laugh like that! "And to think, mother, that you told me to come down heavy on the 'strong and country raised'! Oh, this is rich! I wrote that advertisement, Miss Far--" "Please call me Marcia." "May I?" He was again eager and boyish. "Why not?" I said. He went on with his unfinished sentence. "--And I pride myself that I rose to the occasion of mother's command to make it 'brief but explicit'."