red trunks pointing
askew against the slow, dusky crimson of the west. On the nearest and
tallest of these wrecked monuments, immediately above their camp, as on
a slender pedestal, sat a great owl, the only visible living thing in
all the wide expanse, besides themselves. As long as there was light
enough to see him, he crouched there, motionless.

Natalie sat huddled on a box, with Garth's coat thrown about her
shoulders. Her chin was in her palm, and her lashes veiled rebellious,
miserable eyes. There are moments when the most aerial spirits sink to
earth; and just now Natalie could make no pretense at a flight. It was
clear he loved her, as she loved him; what then were a few words five
years old, to keep them apart? She tried honestly to arm her breast by
thinking of the laws that separated them; but the insidious part of it
was, they were worldly laws; and here the world was thrust out of sight.
Why did he not take her in his arms, and let her heavy head fall on his
shoulder? her heart reiterated; and that was the only voice she could
hear then. Yet if Garth had betrayed any weakness on his part, Natalie
would have been on the _qui vive_ to repel him. The forces of her soul
were thrown in a sad confusion; while her woman's instinct raged against
him, that he could resist her, she loved him tenfold more for that very
resistance.

And Garth--seeing her sitting there so small under his coat, and all
relaxed and appealing, her mouth like an unhappy child's, and her eyes
big with unshed tears--his arms ached to enfold her; his brain reeled
with the intensity of his desire to take her as she trembled to be
taken. But her helplessness, which tortured him, nerved him to endure
the torture. In the turmoil of his blood he could not think coherently;
but he could repeat to himself, dully, over and over: "I must take
care of her! I must take care of her!" He busied himself with small
unnecessary tasks; splicing the tracking line, chopping tent-pegs,
cleaning the frying pan with sand.

Natalie disappeared within her tent--and cried herself to sleep. Garth,
lying outside the door, though she attempted to smother the sound in her
pillow, heard; and it was like little knives hacking in his breast.
Sleep for him was out of the question; he was denied the relief of
tears. He rose, when Natalie's quiet breathing told him she was asleep
at last, and undressing, waded into the river, and swam back and forth
until the cold water chi