She nodded her head slowly.
“Yes—now,” she answered. “So would Mr. Haydon, Max.” 242
“’Tana! do you mean—” His face flushed hotly, and he looked at her for the first time with anger in his face.
She put out her hand in a tired, pleading way.
“I only mean that now, when I have been lucky enough to help myself, it seems as if every one thinks I need looking after so much more than they used to. Maybe because I am not strong yet—maybe so; I don’t know.” Then she smiled and looked at him curiously.
“But I made a mistake when I said ’every one,’ didn’t I? For Dan never comes near me any more.”
Then the strange canoes came in sight and very close to them, as they turned a bend in the creek. There were three large boats—one carrying freight, one filled with new men for the works, and in the other—the foremost one—was Mr. Haydon, and a tall, thin, middle-aged stranger.
“Uncle Seldon!” exclaimed Lyster, with animation, and held the canoe still in the water, that the other might come close, and in a whisper he said:
“The one to the right is Mr. Haydon.”
He glanced at her and saw she was making a painful effort at self-control.