and they're all exactly alike, and all full of beastly mosquitoes in the
summer--it beats me! I wish Yerkes would hurry up." He leant back
sleepily against the door of the car and closed his eyes.

"It's _because_ they haven't got a name--and they're so endless!--and
the place is so big!--and the people so few!--and the chances are so
many--and so queer!" said Elizabeth Merton laughing.

"What sort of chances?"

"Chances of the future."

"Hasn't got any chances!" said Philip Gaddesden, keeping his hands in
his pockets.

"Hasn't it? Owl!" Lady Merton neatly pinched the arm nearest to her. "As
I've explained to you many times before, this is the Hinterland of
Ontario--and it's only been surveyed, except just along the railway, a
few years ago--and it's as rich as rich--"

"I say, I wish you wouldn't reel out the guide-book like that!" grumbled
the somnolent person beside her. "As if I didn't know all about the
Cobalt mines, and that kind of stuff."

"Did you make any money out of them, Phil?"

"No--but the other fellows did. That's my luck."

"Never mind, there'll be heaps more directly--hundreds." She stretched
out her hand vaguely towards an enchanting distance--hill beyond hill,