Part 29 (2/2)
She had never had to act a part more cruel,--that she could feel joy at the prospect of her departure
She could deceive herself no longer The events of the previous day had opened her eyes--in a sroped in vain for a single anticipation, a single prospect that could lighten the overpowering weight of her sadness And the one hope that cae sister of despair,--that back in her old life, in her own city, full forgetfulness ood-by to the bitter cold and the snoastes? Was there no joy in this? Yet these sah now to be blasted, had been a revelation and a wonder that no words could name or no triumphs of the future could equal The end of her adventure,--and she felt it ht as well be the end of her life Three little days of bitter hardshi+p, Bill tra nowhere except to barren old age and death
Never again would she know the winter forest, the silence and thewith infinite sadness from the hill
The North Wind, a reality noould be a forgotten et that she had seen the woodland caribou, quivering with irrepressible vigor against the snowfields The thrill, the exhilaration of battle, the heat of red blood in her veins would be strangers soon: the whole adventure would seem like some happy, i her goodstep on the threshold, the touch of a strong hand in a hast and crushed at the realization that thisout of her life forever She would leave hiaze
She found it hard to believe that she could fit into her old niche
Soed the very fiber of her soul She could find no joy at the thought of the old gayeties she had once loved, the beauty and the waro out beside her, the lover of her girlhood? His uncle would start him in business; her course with him would be sht
As the hours passed, the realization of her ihts She still ay It would not do for these hed often and her words were joyous She fought back the tears that burned in her eyelids She could only play the game; there was no way out
She could conceive of no circumstances whereby her fate would be altered She kne, as well as she knew the fact of her own life, that she had been trapped and snared and cheated by a sardonic destiny
For the ht her way back to the cabin with Bill after yesterday's adventure, but that side by side in the drifts, they had yielded to the Shadow and the cold
Through the dragging hours of afternoon, Harold seemed restless and uneasy He smoked impatiently and was nervous and abstracted in the hours of talk But the afternoon died at last Once rew; the first, bright stars thrust through the gray canopy above the supper,--the last supper in this little, unforgettable cabin in the snow
Both Bill and Virginia started with a knuckles on the door Harold's eyes were glea
XXIX
Harold saw fit to answer the door hilance could just ularly dark and unprepossessing, in the candlelight She experienced a swift flood of fear that she couldn't understand: then forced it away as an absurdity
”We--we a--been over Bald Peak way,” Joe said stuly ”Didn't know no one was here Want a bunk here to-night”
”You've got your own blankets?”
”Yes We got blankets”
”On your way home, eh? Well, I'll have to ask this lady”
Harold seeinia He wondered if this courteous reference to her was a ? It would irl and he felt sure He half-closed the door
”A couple of Indians, going hoa,” he explained quickly ”They've co up here to-night That's the woods custom, you know--to stay at anybody's cabin They didn't knoere here and want to stay, anyway Do you think we can put 'eht like this It is aard, though--about food----”
”They've likely got their own food”
”Of course they can stay Bill can sleep on the floor in here--you can take the two of theht work, but we can't do anything else Bring theain to the door, and in a ht The brighter light did not reveal thelance and was instinctively repelled: but at once she ascribed the evil savagery of their faces to racial traits She went back to her work