But the biggest thing in the dream had been the feeling of escape,—together with that exhilarating sense of space after which she had always hankered, without rhyme or reason. Other places, no doubt, could have given her that same sense, but it was Canada that had captured her imagination. Canada as a whole seemed to have got into the dream, with its strong air, its mountains and lakes, and its long stretches of land reaching to the great line of its horizon. She thought of prairies and woods, and great rivers, and ice-bound harbours. She saw the glint of gold, and dog-sledges racing over frozen country. She saw the soft colours of ripened orchards, and a fresh wind running for miles over the stooping heads of wheat.... All that she had heard and read about the Dominion seemed to have merged into one single setting for that keen adventure of her spirit.

It had all been wonderful beyond imagining, joyful beyond ecstasy; perfect,—no, not quite perfect. There had been just one thing lacking,—one person who had not been present. Kirkby was not in the dream....

II

SHE was still wondering why Kirkby was not in the dream when she had got herself out of bed and was beginning to dress quickly, although not so quickly as she was in the habit of dressing, for her limbs felt heavy, this morning, as if her body also had travelled in the night. Her mind, too, was still inclined to wander, so that at intervals she found herself losing touch with what she was doing. In the very act of fastening button or tape, sewn on with that efficient sureness which was her distinguishing characteristic, she would pause to answer some question put by a voice which could not be less than three thousand miles away.

She felt disconcerted by the fact that Kirkby had apparently had neither lot nor part in last night’s expedition. She was also rather glad, with a queer, jealous gladness which she did not understand, and which made her slightly ashamed. But his absence not only detracted from the reality of the dream; it rather frightened her. The superstition always dormant at the back of the country mind rose up to persuade her that Kirkby would never live to cross the ocean with her.

But the shadow soon passed, as the other shadows had passed, and the rush of excitement returned more headily than ever. She even sang as she dressed, and then stopped with a laugh, feeling that even the walls of the house must come alive to hear her. She was the type of woman who sings naturally as she moves about, but the number of times she had sung in that house she could count on her ten fingers.... Not only had she not had the heart to sing in a place so hostile to her, but it would have seemed to her rather false, implying to all who might hear it that she was beginning to “settle down.”

She had not known that she was going to dislike the place when she first came to it; indeed, she had never even thought about it. She had taken it for granted that she would “settle,” as everybody else, apparently, settled. She had been too young, at that time, to know much about wives who wanted to “move on,” although she had come across more than one (and thought nothing of them) in later life. And she had certainly not known that the place you lived in could be either your enemy or your friend.

Yet she might have guessed that it would not do for her to be dumped down just anywhere; that, like so many of Kirkby’s precious plants, she needed a special soil on which to thrive. And at least she might have guessed that she needed room.... Quite early on her mother had noticed the fact, and commented upon it.

“Look at her now,” Mattie could vaguely recall her saying, pointing her out to some on-looker as she sat at table, “pushing and shoving at t’ pots till she’s got ’em away from her! She did the same as a babby, and a sight o’ mugs she broke an’ all! She can’t abide to be cluttered up, or to have folks pressing on her, can’t our Mattie.”

She had said the same to the school-teacher, when, calling indignantly to demand the meaning of some trifling punishment, she was told that Mattie had insisted upon annexing more of the school-bench than she was entitled to.