Page:A Wild-Goose Chase - Balmer - 1915.djvu/37

Rh When she thought of her dependence upon Eric, sometimes it astonished her, as it always surprised others, to realise the power of her love for him. She never had heard of him till four years before; it was purest chance that they had met at all. Ian Thomas had been a friend of her father's; they had roomed together at a little Eastern college. Margaret went with her father and mother to dinner with Mr. Thomas a week before she was to sail with friends for France and a summer in Brittany. She was a very young girl then, just twenty. Ian Thomas met them in the hall as they arrived at his home.

"I'm keeping a young fellow who called on me this noon. He wants to go with me on the Aurora to the Arctic next month."

"As what?" Margaret's father inquired.

"He's offered to go as cook, seaman, mate or anything; he doesn't care," Mr. Thomas laughed. "And I don't care much either, as long as he goes with me. Come and look at him."

Mr. Thomas led them to his library, which was dark except for the blaze from the log fire