Lady Merton

"I call this part of the line beastly depressing."The speaker tossed his cigarette-end away as he spoke. It fell on the railway line, and thetiny smoke from it curled up for a moment against the heavy background of spruce as thetrain receded."All the same, this is going to be one of the most exciting parts of Canada before long," saidLady Merton, looking up from her guide-book. "I can tell you all about it.""For heaven's sake, don't!" said her companion hastily. "My dear Elizabeth, I really mustwarn you. You're losing your head.""I lost it long ago. To-day I am a bore--to-morrow I shall be a nuisance. Make up your mindto it.""I thought you were a reasonable person!--you used to be. Now look at that view, Elizabeth. We've seen the same thing for twelve hours, and if it wasn't soon going to be dark weshould see the same thing for twelve hours more. What is there to go mad over in that?"Her brother waved his hand indignantly from right to left across the disappearing scene."As for me, I am only sustained by the prospect of the good dinner that I know Yerkesmeans to give us in a quarter of an hour. I won't be a minute late for it! Go and get ready, Elizabeth--""Another lake!" cried Lady Merton, with a jump. "Oh, what a darling! That's the twentiethsince tea. Look at the reflections--and that delicious island! And oh! what are those birds?"She leant over the side of the observation platform, attached to the private car in which sheand her brother were travelling, at the rear of the heavy Canadian Pacific train. To the leftof the train a small blue lake had come into view, a lake much indented with small baysrunning up among the woods, and a couple of islands covered with scrub of beech andspruce, set sharply on the clear water. On one side of the lake, the forest was a hideouswaste of burnt trunks, where the gaunt stems--charred or singed, snapped or twisted, orflayed--of the trees which remained standing rose dreadfully into the May sunshine, abovea chaos of black ruin below. But except for this blemish--the only sign of man--the little lakewas a gem of beauty. The spring green clothed its rocky sides; the white spring cloudsfloated above it, and within it; and small beaches of white pebbles seemed to invite thehuman feet which had scarcely yet come near them."What does it matter?" yawned her brother