"That I believe not. In the cold winter one would have said of these
flowers, 'They come no more.' But the winter goes away, and then here
they are. Richard has been in the dead valley, _der shaduwe des doods_.
Sometimes I thought, he will come back to me no more. But now I am sure
I shall see him again."

Joris turned sadly away. That night he did not speak to her more. But
he had the persistence which is usually associated with slow natures. He
could not despair. He felt that he must go steadily on trying to move
Katherine to what he really believed was her highest interest. And he
permitted nothing to discourage him for very long. Dominie Van Linden
was also a prudent man. He had no intention in his wooing to make haste
and lose speed. As to Katherine's love troubles, he had not been left in
ignorance of them. A great many people had given him such information as
would enable him to keep his own heart from the wiles of the siren. He
had also a wide knowledge of books and life, and in the light of this
knowledge he thought that he could understand her. But the conclusion
that he deliberately came to was, that Katherine had cared neither for
Hyde nor Semple, and that the unpleasant termination of their courtship
had made her shy of all lover-like attentions. He believed that if he
advanced cautiously to her he might have the felicity of surprising and
capturing her virgin affection. And just about so far does any amount of
wisdom and experience help a man in a love perplexity; because every
mortal woman is a different woman, and no two can be wooed and won in
precisely the same way.

Amid all these different elements, political, social, and domestic,
Nature kept her own even, unvarying course. The gardens grew every day
fairer, the air more soft and balmy, the sunshine warmer and more
cherishing. Katherine was not unhappy. As Hyde grew stronger, he spent
his hours in writing long letters to his wife. He told her every trivial
event, he commented on all she told him. And her letters revealed to
him a soul so pure, so true, so loving, that he vowed "he fell in love
with her afresh every day of his life." Katherine's communications
reached her husband readily by the ordinary post; Hyde's had to be sent
through Mrs. Gordon. But it was evident from the first that Katherine
could not call there for them. Colonel Gordon would soon have objected
to being made an obvious participant in his nephew's clandestine
correspondence;