seemed to her an enchanted land.
Snow-peaks, and crystal lakes that mirrored ranks of climbing firs,
struck her as endowed with an almost unearthly beauty and as wonderful a
tranquillity; and when she pushed on through the savage portals of the
mountains there was something that stirred her nature in the sight of the
foaming rivers and the roar of the spray-veiled falls. Now, however, the
glamour had gone, it had been rudely banished on the night when Lisle had
helped her down the rocks. She, who had allowed Clarence to believe that
she would marry him, had found a strange delight in the company of
another man; one whom she might have loved had she been free, she tried
to convince herself, in a determined attempt to hide the fact that her
heart cried out for him.

Lisle had pushed on with a single companion on the previous night to see
if he could obtain canoes; the packers were breaking a trail, and the
others were resting in camp. Millicent was glad of this, for she wanted
to be alone. Suddenly, as she looked down the hollow, two indistinct
figures appeared out of the mist. The packers had gone up the valley, but
there was no doubt that it was two men she saw, and they were apparently
making for the camp. As the party had met nobody since entering the
wilderness, she felt curious about the strangers. There was something in
the carriage of one of them that seemed familiar; and then the uneasiness
of which she had already been conscious became intensified as she
recognized that he walked like Clarence.

A few minutes later the men were hidden by a growth of willows and she
sped back to camp, scrambling among the rocks with a haste that was born
of nervous tension. She did not see the men again--it was needful to pick
a path down the steep descent very carefully--and when she came,
breathless, upon the clump of birches among which the tents were pitched
it was evident from the hum of voices that the strangers had already
arrived. Pushing in among the trees, she stopped, with her heart beating
unpleasantly fast, face to face with Clarence.

"Ah!" he exclaimed, moving forward to meet her; "now I'm rewarded for my
journey. How fit and brown you look, Millicent!"

She stood still a moment, with an expressionless face, finding no words
to say; then with an effort she roused herself and shook hands with him.

"You must have had a trying march if you followed our trail," she said.
"But how did you get here--I mean why did