of Alec's thought with them, though they came to him falling out of
darkness, without personality behind them.

"We may _call_ it ambition when we try to climb trees, but it is not
really so for us if we once had mountain-tops for our goal."

Again came a short reply, a man's voice so much lower in key that again
he could not hear; and then:

"Yes, I have wasted years in tree climbing, more shame to me; but even
when I was most willing to forget the highest, I don't think a little
paltry prosperity in the commonplace atmosphere of a colony would have
tempted me to sell my birthright."

The man she was rating answered, and the clear voice came proudly again:

"You have at least got the pottage that pleases you--you are a success
in this Canadian world."

Just then the soft, wet sound of feet tramping in mud came to him, and
apparently the sound of his own feet was heard also, for the talking
stopped until he had passed them. He discerned their figures, but so
dimly he could hardly have told they were man and woman had he not known
it before by their voices. They were walking very fast, and so was he.
In a moment or two they were out of sight, and he had ceased to hear
their footsteps. Then he heard them speak again, but the wind blew their
words from him.

The tones, the accent, of the woman who had been speaking, told that she
was what, in good old English, used to be called a lady. Alec Trenholme,
who had never had much to do with well-bred women, was inclined to see
around each a halo of charm; and now, after his long, rough exile, this
disposition was increased in him tenfold. Here, in night and storm, to
be roused from the half lethargy of mechanical exercise by the
modulations of such a voice, and forced by the strength of its feeling
to be, as it were, a confidant--this excited him not a little. For a few
moments he thought of nothing but the lady and what he had heard,
conjecturing all things; but he did not associate her with the poor
people he had been told were to meet that night upon the mountain.

Roused by the incident, and alert, another thought came quickly,
however. He was getting past the large black hill, but the lane turning
to it he had not found. Until he now tried with all his might to see, he
did not fully know how difficult seeing was.

The storm was not near enough to suggest danger, for there was still
more than a minute between each flash and its peal. As light rain
drifted in his