recovered, the only trail
she could follow would be one that would lead to the banks of the
Roaring River, where the big air holes were. And yet, so strongly is
hope implanted in the human heart, this termination of her adventure
seemed to have receded into a dimmer future, like the knowledge which
we have that some day all must die but which we consider pertains only
to some vague and distant period that we shall not reach for a long
time.

Hugo was sleeping quietly now and the girl's hand upon his pulse
detected a feeble and swift flowing of the blood-current which, in
spite of its weakness, was an improvement. But the great thing was
that another day had come and he was still living, and his breathing
came quietly. If--if she had loved the man, she never would have been
able to go through all this without a breaking down of her little
strength. As Stefan had said, and as Mrs. Papineau had also intimated,
it was fortunate for her that she did not love him. Indeed, it was
ever so much better. She was glad indeed that he had recognized and
praised her, and then his voice had never expressed the slightest sign
of reproach. She was happy that he had found comfort in her presence
beside his couch and--and had been able to smile at her.

Madge opened the door to let Maigan out. The air was full of feathery
masses of snow blown from treetops. Sheltered as she was from the
wind, the cold was no longer so penetrating. In the east the gray was
tinted through the agency of long rifts in which dull shades of red
broke through and were reflected even upon the white at her feet. It
was not a cheery world just then, since the sun did not shine and the
great fronds of evergreens loomed very dark, but the vastness of the
wooded valley sloping down beneath her and stretching beyond the
limits of her vision impressed her with a sense of greatness and of
power. It was a tremendously big, strong and inexorable world, in
which was being fought the unending and apparently unjust battle of
the mighty against the weak, of the wolves and lynxes against the deer
and hares, of a myriad furred and sharp-fanged things against the
feebler and defenseless things of the forest. But also it was a world
capable of bringing forth majestic things; able and willing to reward
toil; in which, despite all of nature's unceasing cruelty, there could
reign happiness and the accomplishment of a heart's desire.

All this was not clearly shaped in Madge's mind