anticipated.

He kissed her hand.

"You've all the fall and all the winter to tell me such sweet things,"
he said. "Perhaps to-morrow I'll find my tongue and tell you something."

"Tell me now," she said, quickly.

"Well, you're beautiful," he replied, with strong feeling.

"Really?" she smiled, and that smile was the first he had ever seen upon
her face. It brought out the sadness, the very soul of her great beauty.
"I used to be pretty," she went on, naively. "But if I remember how I
used to look I'm not pretty any more."

Neale laughed. He had begun to feel freer, and to accept this
unparalleled situation with some composure.

"Tell me," he said, with gentle voice and touch--"tell me your name.
Allie--what?"

"Didn't you ever know?" she asked.

"You said Allie. That was all."

He feared this call to her memory, yet he wanted to put her to a test.
Her eyes dilated--the light shaded; they grew sad, dark, humid gulfs of
thought. But the old, somber veil, the insane, brooding stare, did not
return.

"Allie what?" he repeated.

Then the tears came, softening and dimming the pain. "Allie Lee," she
said.

9

Slingerland appeared younger to Neale. The burden of loneliness did not
weigh upon him, and the habit of silence had been broken. Neale guessed
why, and was actually jealous.

"Wal, it's beyond my calculatin'," the trapper said, out by the spring,
where Neale followed him. "She jest changed thet's all. Not so much at
first, though she sparked up after I give her your ring. I reckon
it come little by little. An' one day, why, the cabin was full of
sunshine!... Since then I've seen how she's growed an' brightened.
Workin', runnin' after me--an' always watchin' fer you. Allie's changed
to what she is now. Onct, fur back, I recollect she said she had you to
live fer. Mebbe thet's the secret. Anyhow, she loves you as I never seen
any man loved.... An', son, I reckon you oughter be somewhars near the
kingdom of heaven!"

Neale stole oil by himself and walked in the twilight. The air was warm
and sultry, full of fragrance and the low chirp of crickets. Within his
breast was a full uneasy sensation of imminent catastrophe. Something
was rising in him--great--terrible--precious. It bewildered him to try
to think of himself, of his strange emotions, when his mind seemed to
hold only Allie.

What then had happened? After a long absence up in the mountains he had
returned to Slingerland's valley home,