"Forget her! What's the meaning of all this? Why, man, five minutes ago you were all on fire about her, and now you talk quietly about giving her up! I'm all adrift." "Well, it's a mixed up matter." "What is?" "My affair." "Your affair; something that has happened?" "Yes. It's a sore matter, and I don't care to speak about it just now." "Oh!" "And it's the real cause why I don't go back to England." "The mischief it is! Why, Dacres, I'll be hanged if you're not using the very words I myself used a few minutes ago." "Am I?" said Dacres, gloomily. "You certainly are; and that makes me think that our affairs are in a similar complication." "Oh no; mine is very peculiar." "Well, there's one thing I should like to ask, and you needn't answer unless you like." "Well?" "Doesn't your difficulty arise from some confounded woman or other?" "Well--yes." "By Jove, I knew it! And, old fellow, I'm in the same situation." [Illustration: "BY JOVE, I KNEW IT!"] "Oh ho! So you're driven away from England by a woman?" "Exactly." Dacres sighed heavily. "Yours can't be as bad as mine," said he, with a dismal look. "Mine is the worst scrape that ever you heard of. And look at me now, with the child-angel all ready to take me, and me not able to be taken. Confound the abominable complications of an accursed civilization, I say!" "And I say, Amen!" said Hawbury. CHAPTER VI. THE FIERY TRIAL. "See here, old chap," said Hawbury, "I'm going to make a clean breast of it." "Of what?" "Of my affair." "That's right," said Dacres, dolefully. "I should like of all things to hear it." "You see I wouldn't tell you, only you yourself turn out to be in a similar situation, and so what I have to say may prove of use to you. At any rate, you may give me some useful suggestion. "Very well, then," continued Hawbury--"to begin. You may remember that I told you when we met here where I had been passing the time since I saw you last." Dacres nodded assent. "Well, about two years ago I was in Canada. I went there for sport, and plunged at once into the wilderness. And let me tell you it's a very pretty country for hunting. Lots of game--fish, flesh, and fowl--from the cariboo down to the smallest trout that you would care to hook. Glorious country; magnificent forests waiting for the lumberman; air that acts on you like wine, or even better; rivers and lakes in all directions; no end of sport and all that sort of thing, you know. Have you ever been in Canada?" "Only traveled through." "Well, the next time you feel inclined for high art sport we'll go together, and have no end of fun--that is, if you're not married and done for, which, of course, you will be. No matter. I was saying that I was in a fine country. I spent a couple of months there with two or three Indians, and at length started for Ottawa on my way home. The Indians put me on the right path, after which I dismissed them, and set out alone with my gun and fishing-rod.