all the circumstances, he regarded this meeting with Zulma as something
providential. He had almost a suspicion that Batoche had had a secret
hand in bringing it about, so impressed had he become with the wonderful
resources of that singular man. Zulma was actually calm, but her heart
was full of gratitude and there was a fervour in her language which
showed that her sensitive nature was in harmony with the time and place
in which she found herself. Never had Cary seen her more beautiful. The
humbleness and poverty of her surroundings brought out into relief the
wealth and lordliness of her charms. She sat like an empress in her
wicker chair. The predominant thought with Cary, as he glanced at her
admiringly, was this--that it was an episode to be remembered through
life, an episode which he could not have expected in his wildest dreams,
and which would never recur again, to sit thus, a thousand miles away
from home, in a lonely hut, in the snow-piled forests of Canada, with
one of the loveliest and grandest women of God's planet. Over and over
again, as he took in quietly the significance of this fact, he closed
his eyes and delivered his soul to full and uninterrupted fruition.
There are brief hours of enjoyment--few and far between--which are full
compensation for years of dull, common-place existence, or even of
positive suffering. Cary was very happy, and he might have sat there,
before the fire, the live-long night, without ever thinking of his own
or his companion's fatigue. Zulma, while no less absorbed in her own
delight, was more considerate. When ten o'clock was reached, she called
Batoche from his retreat, and proposed to him the arrangements for the
night. After these were settled, she told her old friend that she had a
favor to ask him. She wished him to play the violin. He hesitated a
moment, then with a quaint smile fetched the instrument from the little
room. Taking his stand in the centre of the hut, he opened with a few
simple airs which only drew a smile from the lips of his listeners, but
all at once, changing his mood, he plunged into a whirlpool of wild
melody, now torturing then coaxing his violin, till he seemed
transported beside himself, and both Zulma and Cary fancied themselves
in the presence of a possessed spirit. They exchanged glances of wonder
and almost of apprehension. Neither of them was at all prepared for this
exhibition of wondrous mechanical skill, and preternatural expression.
Bat