w exactly
how to deal with him. Isn't it, perhaps, something of that kind?"

The girl made no reply, and when I took her hand I felt that it trembled
a little and was cold.

"It's not his love that I'm afraid of," she said hurriedly, for at this
moment we heard the dip of a paddle in the water, "it's something in his
very soul that terrifies me in a way I have never been terrified
before,--yet fascinates me. In town I was hardly conscious of his
presence. But the moment we got away from civilisation, it began to
come. He seems so--so _real_ up here. I dread being alone with him. It
makes me feel that something must burst and tear its way out--that he
would do something--or I should do something--I don't know exactly what
I mean, probably,--but that I should let myself go and scream--"

"Joan!"

"Don't be alarmed," she laughed shortly; "I shan't do anything silly,
but I wanted to tell you my feelings in case I needed your help. When I
have intuitions as strong as this they are never wrong, only I don't
know yet what it means exactly."

"You must hold out for the month, at any rate," I said in as
matter-of-fact a voice as I could manage, for her manner had somehow
changed my surprise to a subtle sense of alarm. "Sangree only stays the
month, you know. And, anyhow, you are such an odd creature yourself that
you should feel generously towards other odd creatures," I ended lamely,
with a forced laugh.

She gave my hand a sudden pressure. "I'm glad I've told you at any
rate," she said quickly under her breath, for the canoe was now gliding
up silently like a ghost to our feet, "and I'm glad you're here, too,"
she added as we moved down towards the water to meet it.

I made Sangree change into the bows and got into the steering seat
myself, putting the girl between us so that I could watch them both by
keeping their outlines against the sea and stars. For the intuitions of
certain folk--women and children usually, I confess--I have always felt
a great respect that has more often than not been justified by
experience; and now the curious emotion stirred in me by the girl's
words remained somewhat vividly in my consciousness. I explained it in
some measure by the fact that the girl, tired out by the fatigue of many
days' travel, had suffered a vigorous reaction of some kind from the
strong, desolate scenery, and further, perhaps, that she had been
treated to my own experience of seeing the members of the party in a new