No woman could have beheld his burning eagerness without an answering thrill, and although Mildred sat motionless, her lids drooped slightly and a faint color tinged her cheeks. Her idle hands clasped themselves rigidly. "You are always the same," she smiled. "You sweep me away from myself and from everything. I have never seen any one like you. There are people everywhere. Father is somewhere close by." "I don't care-" "I do." "My launch is alongside; let me take you ashore and show you what I have done. I want you to see." "I can't. I promised to go ashore with the Berrys and Mr. Marsh." "Marsh!" "Now don't get tragic! We are all going to look over his plant and have lunch there--they are expecting me. Oh, dear!" she cried, plaintively, "I have seen and heard nothing but canneries ever since we left Vancouver. The men talk nothing but fish and packs and markets and dividends. It's all deadly stupid, and I'm wretchedly tired of it. Father is the worst of the lot, of course." Emerson's eyes shifted to his own cannery. "You haven't seen mine--ours," said he. "Oh yes, I have. Mr. Marsh pointed it out to father and me. It looks just like all the others." There was an instant's pause before she ran on. "Do you know, there is only one interesting feature about them, to my notion, and that is the way the Chinamen smoke. Those funny, crooked pipes and those little wads of tobacco are too ridiculous." The lightness of her words damped his ardor, and brought back the sense of failure. That formless huddle of buildings in the distance seemed to him all at once very dull and prosaic. Of course, it was just like scores of others that his sweetheart had seen all the way north from the border-line. He had never thought of that till now. "I was down with the fishing fleet at the mouth of the bay this morning when you came in. I thought I might see you," he said. "At that hour? Heavens! I was sound asleep. It was hard enough to get up when we were called. Father might have instructed the captain not to steam so fast." Boyd stared at her in hurt surprise; but she was smiling at Alton Clyde in the distance, and did not observe his look. "Don't you care even to hear what I have done?" he inquired. "Of course," said Mildred, bringing her eyes back to him. Hesitatingly he told her of his disappointments, the obstacles he had met and overcome, avoiding Marsh's name, and refraining from placing the blame where it belonged. When he had concluded, she shook her head. "It is too bad. But Mr. Marsh told us all about it before you came. Boyd, I never thought well of this enterprise. Of course, I didn't say anything against it, you were so enthusiastic, but you really ought to try something big. I am sure you have the ability. Why, the successful men I know at home have no more intelligence than you, and they haven't half your force. As for this--well, I think you can accomplish more important things than catching fish."