Alton's eyes twinkled. "Oh, yes," he said. "Some venison. There was the deer you shot in the potatoes, and a bag of dried plums. Our orchard has done very well, Mr. Townshead."
"I wonder if I forgot the Excelsior pears," said Seaforth. "They're as big as your two fists, and Harry's quite proud of them."
Townshead, who was not an observant man, appeared astonished, and also a trifle touched. "I'm afraid I have not always appreciated my bush friends as I should have done, and your kindness will I think lessen my daughter's difficulty respecting the commissariat," he said. "There are, of course, many of the little things we were used to which she feels the loss of."
Seaforth, who read a good deal more than his words expressed in the speaker's face, signed to his comrade, who went out and returned later with a hamper. "Somebody must have forgotten to put the venison in, but the other things are all there," he said.
Townshead assisted them to unpack the hamper, and while they were busy over it his daughter came in. It was apparently raining, for the thin white dress clung about her, and she seemed very white and weary. Darkness was drawing on, the room was dim, and at first she apparently only saw her father as she stood taking off her hat by the window.
"Nothing again to-day, and I am very tired," she said. "Still, I am to call at another store to-morrow, and I was wickedly extravagant. I was kept until it was too late for dinner, and I bought something that will please you for supper."
Then as she turned to lay the wet hat down the blood rushed to her face, for she saw Alton kneeling by the hamper and Seaforth standing in the shadow behind her father's chair. The former did not rise, but his comrade came forward smiling in another moment.
"I am glad we did not miss you, as we were about to go when you came in," he said. "These are one or two trifles Harry fancied might be useful. He is absurdly proud of all the products of Somasco, and seems to think nobody can get anything nice in the city."
Seaforth also talked a good deal, and Miss Townshead smiled now and then at him, but when she went with them to the door he lingered a moment because he felt her eyes were on him.
"Your comrade didn't support you well, and I don't think the expedient would have occurred to him," she said, with a little tremor in her voice. "Still, it was done in kindness—and I am grateful."