"Thanks," she interrupted, and turned back toward the door. When they reached the hall she glanced at her companion as the light fell on his face. "Your offer's genuine," she said impulsively. "I can't see what you expect in return." Lisle was puzzled by her expression. She was variable in her moods, generally somewhat daring, and addicted to light mockery. He could not tell whether she spoke in bitterness or in mischief. "No," he replied gravely, "nor do I." She left him with a laugh; and a little later he drove her and her companions away and afterward returned to Nasmyth's house to find that his host had retired. Lisle followed his example and rising early the next morning they set off for the river, up which the sea-trout were running. They were busy all morning and it was not until noon, when they lay in the sunshine eating their lunch on a bank of gravel, that either of them made any allusion to the previous evening. "Did you enjoy yourself last night?" Nasmyth asked. "Fairly," Lisle responded, smiling. "I've already confessed that you people interest me. At the same time, I had my difficulties--first of all to explain to the Marples why you didn't come. The reasons you gave didn't sound convincing." "They were good enough. It's probable that Marple understood them. Like most of my neighbors, I go once or twice in a year; his subscription to the otter hounds entitles him to that." "We don't look at things in that way in the parts of Canada I'm acquainted with," laughed Lisle. "Then I've no doubt you'll come to it," Nasmyth replied with some dryness. "They've done so already in the older cities. Now--since you're fond of candor--you have been glad to earn a dollar or two a day by chopping and shoveling, haven't you? Have you felt left out in the cold at all during the little while you have spent among us?" "Not in the least," Lisle owned. "Then you can infer what you like from that. In this country, we take a good deal for granted and avoid explanations. But you haven't said anything about the proceedings at Marple's. I suppose you were invited to take a hand at cards?" "I invited myself; result, sixty dollars to the bad in half an hour. I used to hold my own in our mining camps, and I hadn't the worst cards." Nasmyth laughed with unconcealed enjoyment. "The only fault I have to find with you Westerners is that you're rather apt to overrate yourselves. I suppose they let young Crestwick in a good deal deeper?" "That," laughed Lisle, "is what you have been leading up to from the beginning." "I'll admit it. As I've hinted, one of the differences between an American and an Englishman is that the former usually expresses more or less forcibly what he thinks, unless, of course, he's a financier or a politician; while you have often to learn by experience what the latter means. Better use your own methods in telling me what took place." Lisle did so, omitting any reference to Bella, and Nasmyth looked disturbed and disgusted.