was surmounted by a
fair, girlish face, which looked ravishingly fresh and tangible in its
misty setting. The lower portions, partly owing to their neutral
coloring and in part to the density of the fog, were but vaguely
suggested.

"I have been waiting for you nearly half an hour, down at the
river-brink," called out a voice from below, and its clear, mellow
ring seemed suddenly to lighten the heavy atmosphere. "I really
thought you had forgotten me."

"Forgotten you?" cried Maurice, making a very unscientific leap down
in the direction of the voice "When did I ever forget you, you
ungrateful thing?"

"Aha!" responded Elsie, laughing, for of course the voice as well as
the bodice was hers. "Now didn't you say the edge of the glacier?"

"Yes, but I didn't say the lower edge. If you had at all been gifted
with the intuition proverbially attributed to young ladies in your
situation, you would have known that I meant the western edge--in fact
here, and nowhere else."

"Even though you didn't say it?"

"Even though I did say it."

Fern was now no longer a resident of the Ormgrass Farm. After the
discovery of their true relation, Tharald had shown a sort of sullen,
superstitious fear of him, evidently regarding him as a providential
Nemesis who had come to avenge the wrong he had done to his absent
brother. No amount of friendliness on Maurice's part could dispel this
lurking suspicion, and at last he became convinced that, for the old
man's sake as well as for his own, it was advisable that they should
separate. This arrangement, however, involved a sacrifice which our
scientist had at first been disposed to regard lightly; but a week or
two of purely scientific companionship soon revealed to him how large
a factor Elsie had become in his life, and we have seen how he managed
to reconcile the two conflicting necessities. The present rendezvous
he had appointed with a special intention, which, with his usual
directness, he proceeded to unfold to her.

"Elsie dear," he began, drawing her down on a stone at his side, "I
have something very serious which I wish to talk to you about."

"And why do you always want to talk so solemnly to me, Maurice?"

"Now be a brave little girl, Elsie, and don't be frightened."

"And is it, then, so very dreadful?" she queried, trembling a little
at the gravity of his manner rather than his words.

"No, it isn't dreadful at all. But it is of great importance, and
therefore we mu