“Well, it looks like it, I’ll give you that!” she answered good-temperedly, though with a touch of discomfort. “I’ll admit it looks like it.... But I don’t know that it does to go shouting things out over soon. There’s some think you’ll likely spoil your luck that way if you’re not careful.” Dolly looked a little disconcerted for a moment, and then laughed brightly. “Ay, well, we’ll pretend it’s true, shall we?” she said cheerfully. “Just make a game of it? _That_ can’t spoil your luck! We’ll pretend you’re off to Canada, though you’re stopping on just as usual.” “That’s it!” Mattie said, in a tone of obvious relief. “We’ll just pretend.... Well, then, my lass, if you want to know, we’re thinking of getting away by nigh on the first boat that can take us.” “Eh, now, if that isn’t news!” Dolly played up promptly, for all the world as if she had never heard a suggestion of such a thing until that moment. Her face glowed as she spoke, and a faint astonishment took Mattie, as it had taken her with Len, that anybody else should care so much about the project.... “But you can’t get away that soon, can you?” the younger woman went on. “There’s your notice to give in, and folks to tell on the other side. You’ll be having a sale, you said; there’ll be that to settle. And likely there’ll be a thing or two you’ll be wanting for the journey.” Mattie felt a fresh twinge of surprise at this smart summary of her private business, together with a twinge of uneasiness as she remembered the Hall letter. Kirkby must be reminded about it, she thought, the moment he came in.... But she forgot it again instantly as she began a recital of her plans, her hot face growing hotter, and her hands moving restlessly. The future became more and more real to her as she talked, just as it had been made more real by the mere moving of the furniture. She found herself telling Dolly not only about the measuring and the packing, but about the conditions and people awaiting her over the water. She was not always quite certain whether what she was relating existed in point of fact or only in last night’s dream, but it did not matter. Such discrepancies as there might be counted for nothing in the main immensity of her statement. Dolly made the most satisfying listener that anybody could desire, her own hands twitching and her own eyes shining. “It’s like a fairy-story, I’m sure!” she declared, when at last the other, short of further facts for the time being, was beginning to repeat herself. “I’ve heard a deal about Canada, one way and another. My cousin, Jessie Bowness married, this last year, and went out to the same part as your Ellen.” “Oh, ay?” Mattie replied indifferently, getting somewhat heavily to her feet. “Help me shove this cupboard back again where it come from, there’s a good lass.”