She looked grave.
"Sometimes," she answered, "I wonder."
Then she turned to West.
"You don't seem impressed with the country," she said.
"As a rule, I try to be truthful. The country strikes me as being pretty mixed, full of contrasts. There's this place, for instance; one could imagine they had meant to build a Greek temple, and now it looks more like a swimming-bath. After planning the rest magnificently, why couldn't they put on a roof that wouldn't leak?"
"It has been an exceptionally heavy rain," the girl reminded him.
"Just so. But couldn't somebody get a broom and sweep the water out?
Our unimaginative English folk could rise as far as that."
She laughed good-humoredly, and her father sauntered up to them.
"Any news of the train yet?" he asked.
"No, sir," said Edgar. "In my opinion, any attempt to extract reliable information from a Canadian railroad-hand is a waste of time. No doubt, it's so scarce that it hurts them to part with it."