‘What should he have gone off to Canada for? He might have been contented to stay at home, after having lost all this time by his illness. Oh, yes, I know that sounds ungrateful, when it was all in the cause of my little Cea. I shall be thankful to him all my life, but all the same, he ought to be at home when he is wanted, and I wonder he liked to fly off just when he had got his dear little boy back again.’
‘He did not like it, but thought it his duty.’
‘Duty—what, to Herbert? Certainly the boy has come out very well in this matter, considering that the finding Mite was to his own detriment;
but probably he has found his vocation as a colonist. Still Northmoor might have let him find that for himself.’
‘Do you know where the home he found is, Bertha?’
‘Somewhere about Lake Winnipeg, isn’t it?’
‘Yes; and the name is Northmoor.’
‘Named by Herbert, eh? Or didn’t John Tulse go out? Did he name the place in loyalty to us?’
‘Not John Tulse, but one who told Herbert that his happiest days were spent here.’
‘Adela, you mean something. Don’t tantalise me. Is it Fred Alder? And was he kind to the boy for old sake’s sake, because he bore the old name? Did he think he was your Mike?’