LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 101 



Still, in one dark corner of his heart, there shone at in- 

 tervals a faint spark of what was once a fiercely-burning 

 fire. Neither time, that corroder of all things, nor change, 

 that ready abettor of oblivion, nor scenes of peril and ex- 

 citement, which act as dampers to more quiet memories, 

 could smother this little smouldering spark, which now 

 and again when rarely- coming calm succeeded some stir- 

 ring passage in the hunter's life, and left him, for a brief 

 time, devoid of care, and victim to his thoughts would 

 flicker suddenly, and light up all the nooks and corners of 

 his rugged breast, and discover to his mind's eye that one 

 deep-rooted memory clung there still, though long neglected; 

 proving that, spite of time and change, of life and fortune, 



" On revient toujours & ses premiers amours." 



Often and often, as La Bonte sat cross-legged before his 

 solitary camp-fire, and, pipe in mouth, watched the blue 

 smoke curling upwards in the clear cold sky, a well-remem- 

 bered form appeared to gaze upon him from the vapoury 

 wreaths. Then would old recollections crowd before him, 

 and old emotions, long a stranger to his breast, shape them- 

 selves, as it were, into long-forgotten but now familiar pul- 

 sations. Again he felt the soft subduing influence which 

 once, in days gone by, a certain passion exercised over his 

 mind and body ; and often a trembling seized him, the same 

 he used to experience at the sudden sight of one Mary 

 Brand, whose dim and dreamy apparition so often watched 

 his lonely bed, or, unconsciously conjured up, cheered him 

 in the dreary watches of the long and stormy winter 

 nights. 



At first he only knew that one face haunted his dreams 

 by night, and the few moments by day when he thought 

 of anything, and this face smiled lovingly upon him and 

 cheered him mightily. Name he had quite forgotten, or 

 recalled it vaguely, and, setting small store by it, had 

 thought of it no more. 



For many years after he had deserted his home, La Bonte" 

 had cherished the idea of again returning to his country. 

 During this period he had never forgotten his old flame, 



