took her further and further away from him, something which, as yet, she
did not dare to name, kept tugging at her heartstrings and which she
endeavoured to overcome by listening to the stage driver's long-winded
reminiscences and anecdotes concerning the country through which
they were passing. But, although she made a brave effort to appear
interested, it did not take him long to realise that something was on
his passenger's mind and, being a wise man, he gradually relapsed into
silence, with the result that, before the long journey ended at Cloudy
Mountain, she had deceived herself into believing that she was certain
to see her admirer again.

But as the days grew into weeks, the weeks into months, and the Girl
neither saw nor heard anything of him, it was inevitable that the
picture that he had left on her mind should begin to grow dim.
Nevertheless, it was surprising what a knack his figure had of appearing
before her at various times of the day and night, when she never failed
to compare him with the miners in the camp, and, needless to say,
unflatteringly to them. There came a time, it is true, when she was
sorely tempted to tell one of them something of this new-found friend of
hers; but rightly surmising the effect that her praising of her paragon
would have upon the recipient of her confidences, she wisely resolved to
lock up his image in her heart.

Of course, there were moments, too, when the Girl regretted that there
was no other woman--some friend of her own sex in the camp--to whom she
could confide her little romance. But since that boon was denied her,
she took to seeking out the most solitary places to dream of him. In
such moods she would climb to a high crag, a few feet from her cabin,
and with a reminiscent and far-away look in her eyes she would sit for
hours gazing at the great canyons and gorges, the broad forests and
wooded hillsides, the waterfalls flashing silver in the distance, and,
above all, at the wonderously-grand and snow-capped peaks of the main
range.

At other times she would take the trail leading from the camp to the
country below, and after wandering about aimlessly in the beautiful and
mysterious forests, she would select some little glen through which
a brook trickled and murmured underneath the ferns into a pool, and
seating herself on a clump of velvet moss, the great sugar pines and
firs forming a canopy over her head, she would whisper her secret
thoughts and wild hopes