seem to us so futile."

We came out of the shrubbery upon a bank that dropped before us to a
level lawn. I found myself in the midst of a company of people among
whom were the other members of the new School Council. Below, upon the
lawn, there was a little spectacle going on for our entertainment--a
morris-dance, simply and gracefully performed by young people dressed
in quaintly fashioned frocks of calico; there was good music too--one or
two instruments, to which they danced. Round the other side of the grass
an avenue of stately Canadian maples shut in the view, except where the
river or the pale blue of the eastern horizon was seen in glimpses
through their branches. Behind us the sun's declining rays fell upon an
old-fashioned garden of holly-hocks and asters, so that the effect, as
one caught it turning sideways, was like light upon a stained-glass
window, so rich were the dyes. I saw all this only as one sees the
surroundings of some object that interests supremely.

The man who had been walking with me said simply, "This is my wife."

Before me stood a woman who had the power that some few women have of
making all those whom they gather round them speak out clearly and
freshly the best that is in them.

Ah! we live in a new country. Its streets are not paved with gold, nor
is prosperity to be attained without toil; but it gives this one
advantage--room for growth; whatever virtue a soul contains may reach
its full height and fragrance and colour, if it will.

I did not know then that the beginning of this provincial _salon_, which
Toyner's wife had kept about her for so many years, and to which she