"Oh yes, I am quite myself. I feel ready for any kind of work now."
"Then I suppose you will be going back to Montreal?"
"No." Roderick had made that decision long ago. "No, I could not go with the firm that engaged me—now." He was thinking how impossible those mining deals would be in the eyes of one who had been granted a glimpse into the unseen. Henceforth he knew there was no such work for him. "For mine eyes hath seen the King," he often repeated to himself.
She misunderstood him. "Oh," she said, "I thought—I was told that Mr. Graham's lawyers wanted you, that the position had been kept for you."
"Yes, they were very kind, but I could not. Something happened that made it impossible for me to take up their work again. So for the present I am a fixture in Algonquin, until Lawyer Ed grows tired of me."
She laughed at that, for Lawyer Ed's love for Roderick was a proverb in Algonquin. He had never heard her laugh before. The sound was very musical.
"You will stay a long time then," she said. "Algonquin is a good place to live in."
"You like it?" he asked eagerly.
"Yes, ever so much. I shall be sorry to leave at the mid-summer vacation."
Roderick's heart stood still. "I—I didn't know," he faltered. "I thought you were staying for the whole year."