n her make-up any inherent weakness of mentality, Hazel
might perhaps have brooded herself into neurasthenia. Few save those
who have actually experienced complete isolation for extended periods
can realize the queer, warped outlook such an existence imposes on the
human mind, if that mind is a trifle more than normally sensitive to
impressions, and a nature essentially social both by inclination and
habit. In the first months of their marriage she had assured herself
and him repeatedly that she could be perfectly happy and contented any
place on earth with Bill Wagstaff.

Emotion has blinded wiser folk, and perhaps that is merely a little
device of nature's, for if one could look into the future with too
great a clarity of vision there would be fewer matings. In the main
her declaration still held true. She loved her husband with the same
intensity; possibly even more, for she had found in him none of the
flaws which every woman dreads that time and association may bring to
light in her chosen mate.

When Bill drew her up close in his arms, the intangible menace of the
wilderness and all the dreary monotony of the days faded into the
background. But they, no more than others who have tried and failed
for lack of understanding, could not live their lives with their heads
in an emotional cloud. For every action there must be a corresponding
reaction. They who have the capacity to reach the heights must
likewise, upon occasion, plumb the depths. Life, she began to realize,
resolved itself into an unending succession of little, trivial things,
with here and there some great event looming out above all the rest for
its bestowal of happiness or pain.

Bill knew. He often talked about such things. She was beginning to
understand that he had a far more comprehensive grasp of the
fundamentals of existence that she had. He had explained to her that
the individual unit was nothing outside of his group affiliations, and
she applied that to herself in a practical way in an endeavor to
analyze herself. She was a group product, and only under group
conditions could her life flow along nonirritant lines. Such being the
case, it followed that if Bill persisted in living out of the world
they would eventually drift apart, in spirit if not in actuality. And
that was an absurd summing-up.

She rejected the conclusion decisively. For was not their present
situation the net result of a concrete endeavor to strike a balanc