He jumped a
foot clear of the water after my fly, and gave me a hot time for about
ten minutes. Woke up this morning at daylight and found a buck deer
with two lady friends standing in the middle of the clearing. I loafed
a fews days in Fort George, sort of thinking I might hear from you. Am
sending this out by Jake. Will start for the Klappan about day after
to-morrow.

She had not answered his first letter. She had tried to. But somehow
when she tried to set pen to paper the right words would not come. She
lacked his facility of expression. There was so much she wanted to
say, so little she seemed able to say. As the days passed she felt
less sure of her ground, less sure that she had not sacrificed
something precious to a vagary of self, an obsession of her own ego.

Many things took on a different complexion now that she stood alone.
No concrete evidence of change stood forth preeminent. It was largely
subjective, atmospheric, intangible impressions.

Always with a heart sinking she came back to the empty apartment,
knowing that it would be empty. During Bill's transient absence of the
spring she had missed him scarcely at all. She could not say that now.

And slowly but surely she began to view all her activities of her
circle with a critical eye. She was brought to this partly in
self-defense. Certain of her friends had become tentative enemies.
Kitty Brooks and the Bray womenfolk, who were a numerous and
influential tribe, not only turned silent faces when they met, but they
made war on her in the peculiar fashion of women. A word here, a
suggestive phrase there, a shrug of the shoulders. It all bore fruit.
Other friends conveyed the avid gossip. Hazel smiled and ignored it.
But in her own rooms she raged unavailingly.

Her husband had left her. There was a man in the case. They had lost
everything. The first count was sufficiently maddening because it was
a half truth. And any of it was irritating--even if few
believed--since it made a choice morsel to digest in gossipy corners,
and brought sundry curious stares on Hazel at certain times. Also Mr.
Wagstaff had caused the stockholders of Free Gold a heavy loss--which
was only offset by the fact that the Free Gold properties were
producing richly. None of this was even openly flung at her. She
gathered it piecemeal. And it galled her. She could not openly defend
either Bill or herself against the shadowy scandalmongers.

Slowly