To the Racicot fishing folk the house and grounds were as a dream of enchantment made real . Few of them had ever seen anything like it . Nora Shelley knew Dalveigh well . She had been the Camerons ' guest many times that summer , finding in the luxury and beauty of their surroundings something that entered with a strange aptness into her own nature . It was as if it were hers by right of fitness . And this was the life that might be hers , did she so choose . In reality , her choice was already made , and she knew it . But it pleased her to pretend for a little time that it was not , and to dally tenderly with-the old loves and emotions that tugged at her heart and clamoured to be remembered . Within , in the low-ceilinged living room , with its worn , uneven floor and its blackened walls hung with fish nets and oilskins , four people were sitting . John Cameron and his wife were given the seats of honour in the middle of the room . Mrs. Cameron was a handsome , well-dressed woman , with an expression that was discontented and , at times , petulant . Yet her face had a good deal of plain common sense in it , and not even the most critical of the Racicot folks could say that she `` put on airs . '' Her husband was a small , white-haired man , with a fresh , young-looking face . He was popular in Racicot , for he mingled freely with the sailors and fishermen . Moreover , Dalveigh was an excellent market for fresh mackerel . Nathan Shelley , in his favourite corner behind the stove , sat lurching forward with his hands on his knees . He had laid aside his pipe out of deference to Mrs. Cameron , and it was hard for him to think without it . He wished his wife would go to work ; it seemed uncanny to see her idle . She had sat idle only once that he remembered -- the day they had brought Ned Shelley in , dank and dripping , after the August storm ten years before . Mrs. Shelley sat by the crooked , small-paned window and looked out down the harbour .
The coat she had been patching for her XXXXX when the Camerons came still lay in her lap , and she had folded her hands upon it .
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