besides being beaten down at many a small bargain by richer or more
fortunately situated men. Now, however, he had resolved that there should
be a difference; instead of begging favors, he would dictate terms.

"I should have imagined it," he laughed, in answer to her last remark;
and he was right, for Jessy Horsfield was a clever woman who loved power
and influence.

Vane dropped his napkin, and was stooping to pick it up when an attendant
handed it back to him. He noticed and responded to the glimmer of
amusement in his companion's eyes.

"We are not accustomed to being waited on in the bush," he explained. "It
takes some time to get used to the change. When we wanted anything there
we got it for ourselves."

"Is that, in its wider sense, a characteristic of most bushmen?"

"I don't quite follow."

The girl laughed.

"I suppose one could divide men into two classes: those who are able to
get the things they desire for themselves--which implies the possession
of certain eminently useful qualities--and those who have them given to
them. In Canada the former are the more numerous."

"There's a third division," Vane corrected her, with a trace of grimness.
"I mean those who want a good many things and have to learn to do
without. It strikes me they're the most numerous of all."