Kit said he could not yet get off, and Austin resumed: “Then, since Carrie’s coming to see the bridge we’ll run out to the tank. In fact, you may have a surprise party, because I expect Alison, Florence Grey, and Harries will join us. They haven’t yet been to the bridge and all want to see you.”
“That’s fine! I fancy my cook will see me out. All the same, I’d sooner you gave me a date.”
“Something depends on the weather, but it must be soon. When your letter arrived, Alison was at our house and she was interested. She wants to go with us and she may not be at Fairmead long.”
“Then, you think Miss Forsyth isn’t satisfied at the creamery?” said Kit in a disturbed voice.
“Not at all. They’re putting up fresh plant and a larger building, and she reckons on getting better pay, but she’s bothered about her relations in England. An aunt at a lone homestead is sick and may want her. If she’s called, I guess she’ll go.”
Kit knocked out his pipe and for a few moments was quiet. He admitted he was not reasonable, but he hated to think about Alison’s going. Moreover, he knew her ambitious, and now she made progress for her to go was hard. Yet when he recaptured her portrait of the kind dalesfolk at lonely Whinnyates, he knew she would not hesitate. Well, he was not entitled to grumble and Bob must not think him disturbed.
“To quit will be something of a knock for Alison, but she’s fine stuff,” he said.
“Carrie fell for her at the Winnipeg station waiting-room,” Austin resumed. “Perhaps because we were happy the picture sticks; the pillars, the marble flags and the shabby crowd; you on your battered gripsack, and Alison on the bench. She was tired and lonesome; Carrie reckoned she was near crying, but when we stopped she smiled. That was all; the smile got my wife. Carrie declared she was clean sand, the sort to stay with a hard job and help another.... I reckon she helped you. At Fairmead she talked about you and when we met up at the bridge I own I put Wheeler on your track. Well, I expect you’d have made good, anyhow; but Alison is accountable for your getting a show.”
Kit mused rather unhappily. He knew he did owe Alison much, but he did not altogether see the object of Austin’s remarks. Bob was not a sentimentalist.
“As soon as possible you must fix a date for your visit,” he said. “If your party cannot get across, I’ll start for Fairmead.”