had come, into the world to which he must go back, and there
also he saw himself to be alone. He could not endure the thought of
sharing the motions of his heart and brain with anyone but the one woman
from whom he was wholly separated. Time might make a difference; he was
forced to remember that it is commonly said that time and absence abate
all such attachments. He did not judge that time would make much
difference to him, but in this he might be mistaken.

A man who has depth in him seldom broods over real trouble--not at
first, at least. By this test may often be known the real from the
fanciful woe. Caius, knew, or his instincts knew, that his only chance
of breasting the current was, not to think of its strength, but to keep
on swimming. He took his horse's bits and the harness that had been
given him for his little sleigh, cleaning and burnishing everything with
the utmost care, and at the same time with despatch. He had some
chemical work that had been lying aside for weeks waiting to be done,
and this afternoon he did it. He had it on his mind to utilize some of
his leisure by writing long letters that he might post when it was
possible for him to go home; to-night he wrote two of them.

While he was writing he heard the people coming in twos and threes along
the road back to their houses for the night. He supposed that O'Shea had
got home with the girls he had been escorting, and that his wife had
come home, and that Madame Le Maitre had come back to her house and
taken up again her regular routine of life.

CHAPTER III.

"LOVE, I SPEAK TO THY FACE."

Caius thought a good deal about the words that O'Shea's wife had said to
him. He did not know exactly what she meant, nor could he guess at all
from what point of view concerning himself she had spoken; but the
general drift of her meaning appeared to be that he ought not to let
Madame Le Maitre know where and how he had seen her the day before. In
spite of this, he knew that he could neither be true to himself, nor to
the woman he was forced to meet daily, if he made any disguise of the
recognition which had occurred. He was in no hurry to meet her; he hoped
little or nothing from the interview, but dreaded it. Next day he went
without his horse out to where the men were killing the seals upon the
edge of the ice.

The warm March sun, and the March winds that agitated the open sea, were
doing their work. To-day there was water appearing in places