"What you are doing now is worth while. You would consider that priggishness in England, but it's the truth."
"You mean helping your brother-in-law to get ahead of the timber-righters?"
"No," said Barbara. "That is not what I mean, though if it is any consolation to you, it meets with my approbation, too."
"Then what I was doing before was not worth while?"
"That," said Barbara, with a trace of dryness, "is a question you can answer best, though I saw no especial evidence of activity of any kind. The question is—Can you do nothing better still? This province needs big bridges and daringly-built roads."
"I'm afraid not," and Brooke smiled a trifle wryly. "It costs a good many dollars to build a big bridge, and it is apparently very difficult for any man to acquire them so long as he works with his own hands."
"Still, isn't it worth the effort—not exactly for the dollars?"
Brooke looked at her gravely, with a slight hardening of his lips.
"I think it would be in my case," he said. "The difficulty is that I should run a heavy risk if the effort was ever made. Now, however, I had, perhaps, better show you how far we have got with the tramway."