HE sun had set, and the rugged fells stood out, blue and sharp, against an orange glow, when Festing sat on the terrace of Annet's creeper-covered house. The air was scented with the smell of firs, and a beck splashed in the shadow across the lawn. Festing had lately arrived from Canada, and Annet was the father of a friend whom he had left farming on the Western plains. Annet, however, was not like his son. He was marked by a humorous, philosophic calm, while Bob was always in a hurry and severely practical. Bob's sister, Alice, was tying up some flowers at the end of the terrace, and Festing hoped she was too far off to hear.
"If I didn't know that Bob is nothing of a humorist, I should have thought his letter a rather bad joke," Annet remarked. "I imagined my duty ended with giving him good advice, and money when he extended his farm; but this last request" He paused, and resumed with a twinkle: "His dividing the responsibility between us hints that he doesn't trust my judgment altogether, but one feels that you are, so to speak, rather young for the job."
"It isn't that, sir," Festing objected. "I know how the Western farmers live, and in consequence"
"You know better what is required? Well, I don't resent Bob's want of confidence, and he thoughtfully sent a list of the necessary qualifications. Beauty, he remarks, is not essential, but he insists on intelligence, pluck, and good temper. He would not object to a little money, but does not demand it. The girl, however, must not be afraid of work."
Festing laughed. "The thing sounds ridiculous, but it wouldn't strike one as quite so absurd in Canada. You see, in the prairie provinces marriage is something of a problem for a large number of well-educated young Englishmen who are breaking new soil. They work hard and live frugally, but they have the tastes and traditions of their kind. There are not many women, and the girls who could manage a homestead well might jar, while young Englishwomen of the type they knew at home would be daunted by the hardships and discomforts."
"I do see," said Annet. "Well, Bob was never given to romantic sentiment, and seems at least to know what he wants. On the whole, I think one of Alice's mountaineering friends is indicated. They're not easily daunted or remarkably conventional, and physical strength and resolution are useful things, although it's possible for a young woman to have too much of them."
"I hope Miss Annet doesn't know what I've undertaken."
Annet's eyes twinkled. "She knows what Bob asked me, but not, I think, that he leaves you to approve my choice. Still, she may guess. However, we'll talk of it again, when you come back from your walking tour. In the meantime Alice will tell you where to go."
Festing felt some embarrassment when he joined Miss Annet. He had rashly undertaken to find his friend a wife, and the matter now looked much more difficult than it did in Canada. In fact, it looked preposterous as he walked up and down the English lawn with Alice, who told him where to go and what he ought to see. Afterwards he remembered that she planned his tour, and the time he was to spend at certain places, with marked exactness.
He started next morning, and a day or two later toiled up a long ridge in a hollow between two mountains. The ridge had been an ancient moraine, for curiously-marked stones broke through the mossy grass, and its surface was very rough. Festing, however, had lived among the snow-capped rocks of the Pacific slope, and the climb was not hard to him.
It was a lowering day, with gleams of sunshine that lighted up lichened rock and emerald moss, and vanished. Above, streaks of gauzy mist crept about the hollows in the great black crags. Festing had seen stupendous rocks in Canada, but these fissured English buttresses that rose from the gravel screes were imposing, and he would not like to get lost among them in the mist. There was, however, not much mist, and he had a map, while Alice had given him careful directions and told him where to stop the night.