He stooped towards her.

"Willy-nilly, your friends must like Canada!" he said, in her ear; "if
it makes you so happy."

He had no art of compliment, but the words were simple and sincere, and
Elizabeth grew suddenly rosy, to her own great annoyance. Before she
could reply, however, the Chief Justice had insisted on bringing her
back into the general conversation.

"Come and keep the peace, Lady Merton! Here is my friend Mariette
playing the devil's advocate as usual. Anderson tells me you are
inclined to think well of us; so perhaps you ought to hear it."

Mariette smiled and bowed a trifle sombrely. He was plain and gaunt, but
he had the air of a _grand seigneur_, and was in fact a member of one of
the old seigneurial families of Quebec.

"I have been enquiring of Sir Michael, madam, whether he is quite happy
in his mind as to these Yankees that are now pouring into the new
provinces. He, like everyone else, prophesies great things for Canada;
but suppose it is an American Canada?"

"Let them come," said Anderson, with a touch of scorn. "Excellent stuff!
We can absorb them. We are doing it fast."

"Can you? They are pouring all over the new districts as fast as the
survey is completed and the railways planned. They bring capital, which
your Englishman doesn't. They bring knowledge of the prairie and the
climate, which your Englishmen haven't got. As for capital, America is