p noticing
a change in the expression of her face, her voice, and even her
intonation. It seemed as if that fit of laughter had loosed the last
ties that bound her to a self-imposed character, had swept away the last
barrier between her and her healthier nature, had dispossessed a painful
unreality, and relieved the morbid tension of a purely nervous attitude.
The change in her utterance and the resumption of her softer Spanish
accent seemed to have come with her confidences, and Low took leave
of her before their sylvan cabin with a comrade's heartiness, and a
complete forgetfulness that her voice had ever irritated him.

When he returned that afternoon he was startled to find the cabin empty.
But instead of bearing any appearance of disturbance or hurried flight,
the rude interior seemed to have magically assumed a decorous order
and cleanliness unknown before. Fresh bark hid the inequalities of
the floor. The skins and blankets were folded in the corners, the rude
shelves were carefully arranged, even a few tall ferns and bright but
quickly fading flowers were disposed around the blackened chimney. She
had evidently availed herself of the change of clothing he had brought
her, for her late garments were hanging from the hastily-devised wooden
pegs driven in the wall. The young man gazed around him with mixed
feelings of gratification and uneasiness. His presence had been
dispossessed in a single hour; his ten years of lonely habitation had
left no trace that this woman had not effaced with a deft move of her
hand. More than that, it looked as if she had always occupied it; and
it was with a singular conviction that even when she should occupy it no
longer it would only revert to him as her dwelling that he dropped the
bark shutters athwart the opening, and left it to follow her.

To his quick ear, fine eye, and abnormal senses, this was easy enough.
She had gone in the direction of this morning's camp. Once or twice he
paused with a half-gesture of recognition and a characteristic "Good!"
at the place where she had stopped, but was surprised to find that her
main course had been as direct as his own. Deviating from this direct
line with Indian precaution, he first made a circuit of the camp,
and approached the shattered trunk from the opposite direction. He
consequently came upon Teresa unawares. But the momentary astonishment
and embarrassment were his alone.

He scarcely recognized her. She was wearing the garmen