Dempsey had already repeated the story so often that it was by now perfect in every detail, and it produced the same effect in this lamplit kitchen as in other. Halsey, forgetting his secret ill-humour, was presently listening open-mouthed. Mrs. Halsey laid down her knitting, and stared at the speaker over the top of her spectacles; while across Betts's gnome-like countenance smiles went out and in, especially at the more gruesome points of the tale. The light sparkled on the young Canadian's belt, the Maple Leaf in the khaki hat which lay across his knees, on the badge of the Forestry Corps on his shoulder. The old English cottage, with its Tudor brick-work, and its overhanging beams, the old English labourers with the stains of English soil upon them, made the setting; and in the midst, sat the "new man," from the New World, holding the stage, just as Ellesborough the New Englander was accustomed to hold it, at Great End Farm. All over England, all over unravaged France and northern Italy similar scenes at that moment were being thrown on the magic sheet of life; and at any drop in the talk, the observer could almost hear, in the stillness, the weaving of the Great Loom on which the Ages come and go. There was a pause, when Dempsey came to a dramatic end with the last breath of his grandfather; till Mrs. Halsey said dryly, fixing the young man with her small beady eyes,-- "And you don't mind telling on your own grandfather?" "Why shouldn't I?" laughed Dempsey, "when it's sixty years ago. They've lost their chance of hanging him anyhow." Mrs. Halsey shook her head in inarticulate protest. Betts said reflectively,-- "I wouldn't advise you to be tellin' that tale to Miss Henderson." Dempsey's expression changed at the name. He bent forward eagerly. "By the way, who is Miss Henderson? Do you know where she comes from?" The others stared. "Last winter," said Betts at last, "she wor on a farm down Devonshire way. And before that she wor at college--with Miss Janet." "Was she ever in Canada?" "Yes!" said Halsey with sudden decision, "she wor--for she told me one day when I wor mendin' the new reaper and binder, that we in this country didn't know what harvest meant. 'Why, I've helped to reap a field--in Canada,' she ses, 'fower miles square,' she ses, 'six teams o' horses--an' six horses to the team,' she ses--'that's somethin' like.' So I know she's been in Canada." "Ah!" said Dempsey, staring at the carpet. "And she's not married? You're sure she's not married?" "Married?" said all the others, looking at him in disapproving astonishment. "Well, if she ain't, I saw her sister--or her double--twice--about two-and-a-half year ago--at a place thirty miles from Winnipeg. I could ha' sworn I'd seen her before!" "Well, you can't ha' seen her before," said Betts positively; "cause she's Miss, not Missis." "Ah!" said Dempsey again in a non-committal voice, looking hard this time into the fire.