A JOURNEY TO NATURE 



course. You can understand that your acquaint 

 anceship might become so necessary to me that 

 I could not think of losing it.&quot; 



&quot; It never entered my head to break it off,&quot; 

 said Griselle. 



&quot; But some intimacies are like fevers ; they come 

 to a crisis, and there is either a convalescence or a 

 collapse beyond.&quot; 



&quot; It seems very odd to speak of a friendship as 

 you would of a sickness. Why should there be 

 any fever in our acquaintance ? &quot; 



This was an allowable prevarication that we 

 admire and condone in a woman who is in a cor 

 ner and has no other weapon. The sun was gone; 

 but there was a flash of his red light, I thought, 

 in her cheek as I bent forward and tried to look 

 into her face. It would not do to carry this in 

 determinate conversation much further, or I would 

 begin to feel a pity for her. 



&quot; Griselle,&quot; I said, and my attempt to be ex 

 plicit made it sound somewhat solemn. 



&quot;Yes,&quot; said Griselle, in the softest abeyant 

 tone. 



&quot; You know what I have been trying to say, 

 although I have not said it.&quot; 



I thought she started a little ahead of me as 

 if mere maiden modesty had impulses like mas 

 culine ardour. We were nearing the cabin. I 

 could see the dull flicker of our wood fire in the 

 window-panes, and I thought I heard Charlie and 

 the yellow dog coming to meet me. 



&quot;Griselle,&quot; I said, &quot;I have been making love 

 290 



