"It was the way she stood at times, and looked just at nothing. She wondered how I knew so many things, having lived all my life in the wilderness. I told her that you taught me, and that I got help from the books I read. I told her, too, about Beryl, and——"
"You did!" Martin exclaimed. "What did she say?"
"She listened until I was through, and then she went and looked out of the window for some time."
"Oh!"
"Yes, it seemed to make her sad. But that wasn't all. When we were unpacking her things she came to a small package, wrapped in paper, and tied with a piece of faded blue ribbon. She opened it and showed me two pictures of a clergyman, so she said."
"What! But go on, Nance. Don't stop."
"In one picture the man was dressed in a funny way, 'in his robes of office,' so Nurse Marion said. I thought he must be her brother, but she told me that he was a man she knew years ago. He was young, fine-looking, and——"
"You wash up the dishes, Nance," Martin interrupted. "I am going outside for a while."
With that he strode to the door, leaving Nance sitting at the table, thinking over what she had seen and heard, and dreaming, of the time when she would be a nurse like the woman over the river. She noticed nothing strange about her father's sudden departure. If she had thought of it at all she would have attributed it to a lack of interest in what she had been talking about.
She had barely got the dishes washed and put away, when Martin returned, bringing with him Tom and Dad Seddon. Hearty were the greetings which fell from the lips of the two prospectors when their eyes rested upon Nance.