"This is most exhilarating. I have been watching that long twilight in the west. How clear and bright it is there! This is a purely Northern sky," exclaimed Lord Canning.
A week later they received word from Mr. Stillwater that he was coming for the remainder of the season. Lord Stafford was present when the letter arrived, and notified his nephew in this wise.
"Pa's coming!" he exclaimed, bursting into Lord Canning's room.
"What!"
"Pa's coming!" he repeated, in a feminine falsetto.
"What do you mean, Uncle Nelson?" interrogated Lord Canning, in an irritated voice.
"I'm repeating Miss Stillwater's words, 'Pa's coming!'"
"Oh!" Lord Canning gazed out of his window at the lake, thinking. "So papa is coming. Well, all the better!"
"He arrives to-morrow, the fifteenth. They're arranging a deer-hunt for the day after. The guides are jubilant that the real business of the season is to commence. They've been idling so long. Haven't you opened your letters yet, Thurston?" noticing the pile of letters on the table.
"I have read my mother's—here it is. She is well, thank God!"