"I should scare them away." "No," said the young man meaningly; "you would attract anything to stay." "Mr Lisle!" "Well, what have I said? There, forgive me, and take the rod. You promised I should show you how to throw a fly." "Yes, yes; but some other time--perhaps to-morrow." "To-morrow comes never," said the young man laughingly. "No; I have my chance now. Miss Dillon, did not your cousin promise to let me show her how to catch a salmon?" "Yes; and I am so tired. I'll wait till you have caught one, Claude." "There," cried the young man hurriedly; and the stronger will prevailing over the weaker, Claude allowed her instructor to thrust the lithe rod he held into her hands, and, trembling and blushing, she suffered herself to be led to the side of the pool. "I shall never learn," she said. "Not learn! I shall be able to come up to the Fort carrying your first salmon, and to say to Mr Gartram: `there, sir; salmon fishing taught in one lesson,' What do you say to that?" "How can she be so foolish?--Of what am I talking?--Mr Lisle, pray let me go." All silent sentences, but as the last was thought Claude raised her eyes to her companion, to meet his fixed upon hers, so full of tender, reverent love that she dropped her own, and fell a-trembling with a joy she tried vainly to crush down, while her heart beat heavily the old, old theme,-- "He loves me well--he loves me well." They had known each other since they were boy and girl, and the affection had slowly and steadily grown stronger and stronger, but Chris Lisle had said to himself time after time that it was too soon to tell her his love, and ask for the guardianship of her heart; and he had waited, feeling satisfied that some day Claude Gartram would be his. "There," he said playfully, "now for lesson the first. Let me draw out some more line. That's the way. Now, you know as well as I do how to throw. Try to let your fly fall amongst that foam below where the water rushes into the pool. That's the way. Bravo!" "There, Mr Lisle," cried Claude, after making a very fair cast, "now take the rod, for I must go. Mary, dear, come along." "Sha'n't," said Mary to herself, as she grew more deaf than ever. "Gather your rosebuds while you may, dear. He's a nice, good fellow. Ah! how I could have loved a man like that." "Mary Dillon is too much interested in her book," said Chris. "There, that's plenty of line for a good cast. You must go on now. It isn't so very wicked, Claude."