"Well, what is it about, Marion?" Colonel Mason asked, surprised at such an unusual exhibition of feeling on the part of his wife.
"Oh! it's about that dear young creature you brought over with you, Sir George. She tells me that she is going with her husband and the troops right through that dreadful forest. The idea is terrible. Perhaps I have no right to; but I beg to intercede. Can not the plan be changed?"
"Did Mrs. Manning wish you to intercede?" Sir George quietly asked.
"No, indeed! I did not even tell her what I thought, but waited until I could obtain your permission to speak."
"Do you know, Mrs. Mason, that it is by her own desire that she is going?" said Sir George, gravely.
"But she doesn't know," protested Mrs. Mason, emphatically. "It would be a shame to take such a young girl out and let her freeze to death on that terrible journey."
"No danger of that, I think," was the smiling rejoinder. "The officers of the 100th Regiment are too gallant to allow such a thing to occur."
"Oh! I know you will do what you can," returned Mrs. Mason, changing her attitude a little; "but when you think of the snow and the ice and the intense cold, and all the terrors of the trip, would it not be better to let her stay with us for the winter, and have her go on to the new fort in the summer after it is built?"
"Ah! That is an entirely different matter, and very kind of you to propose it. But if I know Mrs. Manning aright, she will be the last person in the world to consent to a change in the programme."
"But may I not speak to her? I know Colonel Mason will consent."