knees. He did not instantly answer--indeed, Captain Rexford's manner was
so deliberate that it left room for pauses. Sophia, in cloak and fur
bonnet, was standing by the window, ready to take the children for
their airing. Trenholme found time to look up from his tiny playmate and
steal a glance at her handsome profile as she gazed, with thoughtful,
abstracted air, out upon the snow. "Not a very near connection, Captain
Rexford," was his reply; and it was given with that frank smile which
always leaped first to his eyes before it showed itself about his mouth.

It would have been impossible for a much closer observer than Captain
Rexford to have told on which word of this small sentence the emphasis
had been given, or whether the smile meant that Principal Trenholme
could have proved his relationship had he chosen, or that he laughed at
the notion of there being any relationship at all. Captain Rexford
accordingly interpreted it just as suited his inclination, and mentioned
to another neighbour in the course of a week that his friend, the
Principal of the College, was a distant relative, by a younger branch
probably, of the Trenholmes of--, etc. etc., an item of news of which
the whole town took account sooner or later.

To Mrs. Rexford Trenholme was chiefly useful as a person of whom she
could ask questions, and she wildly asked his advice on every possible
subject. On account of Captain Rexford's friendly approval, and his
value to Mrs. Rexford as a sort of guide to useful knowledge on the
subject of Canada in general and Chellaston in particular, Robert
Trenholme soon became intimate, in easy Canadian fashion, with the
newcomers; that is, with the heads of the household, with the romping
children and the pretty babies. The young girls were not sufficiently
forward in social arts to speak much to a visitor, and with Sophia he
did not feel at all on a sure footing.