Maud with throbbing heart murmured her thanks.
The Captain tried unavailingly to secure another minute to themselves, and with an indefinite understanding that they might speak with each other the next day he took his leave.
But circumstances were not favorable. Every moment of his time was occupied, and it was from the deck of the ship that he again saw her in the distance. The vessel had parted from her moorings and was floating out into the harbor when he discovered her among the crowd on the wharf. Instantly his helmet was raised—a little handkerchief fluttered for a moment in the breeze, and gradually the distance widened between them.
CHAPTER XXIX.
On a bright May morning, later in the month than the sailing of the ships out of the Halifax Harbor, the sun shone at Penetang in vivid warmth and splendor. The people were glad. Earth was putting on her newest garb of green. The trees of the forest, tired of monotonous nudity, were clothed in many tints; and even the tardy ones, the annual laggards, were being roused from their lethargy.
Part of the barracks had been finished and made comfortable for habitation, and the foundations of the fort had already been laid. By judicious division of labor in the soldier settlement, men were portioned off in accordance with their special aptitudes, and every one was busy. Blacksmith and carpenter shops stood side by side, and in them forge, hammer, saw and chisel, did their work persistently from morning until night. Under habitant direction, too, the first fallow had been cleared, the brushwood and timbers piled up to dry for burning, and the land made ready for the seed.
In front of the cottage on this special morning, Helen was busily arranging her little garden. Harold had dug the ground for her and planted the seeds she had brought from England. She was examining the little shoots that had already appeared very tenderly, as a link to the far-away beyond the sea.
"Good morning, Mrs. Manning," said Sir George Head as he approached. "Your little flower beds are full of promise."
"My fear is that the sun will burn the plants before they have a chance to develop," said Helen; "the English climate is so different."
"That depends," said the Colonel. "My gardener used to say that if plants were watered at night, and shaded during the heat of the day, they would stand the change from a cool to a hot climate very well."