Where did you hear me
sing it?"

He had made up his mind, wisely enough, to speak with much openness and
some tact also, if possible. "It was on the Glow Worm River at the Clip
Claw Hills. I came into your father's camp one evening in the autumn,
hungry and tired and knocked about. I was given the next tent to yours.
It was night, and just before I turned in I heard your voice singing. I
couldn't understand much of the language, but I had the sense of it, and
I know it when I hear it again."

"Yes, I remember singing it that night," she said. "Next day was the
Feast of the Yellow Swan."

Her eyes presently became dreamy, and her face took on a distant, rapt
look. She sat looking straight before her for a moment.

He did not speak, for he interpreted the look aright, and he was going
to be patient, to wait.

"Tell me of my father," she said. "You have been kind to him?"

He winced a little. "When I left Fort Charles he was very well," he
said, "and he asked me to tell you to come some day. He also has sent
you a half-dozen silver-fox skins, a sash, and moccasins made by his own
hands. The things are not yet unpacked."

Moccasins?--She remembered when last she had moccasins on her feet--the
day she rode the horse at the quick-set hedge, and nearly lost her
life. How very distant that all was, and yet how near too! Suddenly she
remembered also why she took that mad ride, and her heart hardened a
little.

"You have been kind to my father since I left?" she asked.

He met her eyes steadily. "No, not always; not more than I have been
kind to you. But at the last, yes." Suddenly his voice became intensely
direct and honest. "Lali," he continued, "there is much that I want to
say to you." She waved her hand in a wearied fashion. "I want to tell
you that I would do the hardest penance if I could wipe out these last
four years."

"Penance?" she said dreamily--"penance? What guarantee of happiness
would that be? One would not wish another to do penance if--"

She paused.

"I understand," he said--"if one cared--if one loved. Yes, I understand.
But that does not alter the force or meaning of the wish. I swear to
you that I repent with all my heart--the first wrong to you, the long
absence--the neglect--everything."

She turned slowly to him. "Everything-Everything?" she repeated after
him. "Do you understand what that means? Do you know a woman's heart?
No. Do you know what a shameful neglect is at the most pitiful