TWO DIANAS IN ALASKA 257 



over her fortune to a fund for the Alleviation of the 

 Sufferings of the Cree Indians, or a Mission to Dis- 

 tressed Dervishes ? Anyway, something like that, 

 and then they could both live on his small income, his 

 very own to ask her to share. I smiled at his earnest- 

 ness, and tried to be duly serious. 



"That would be silly," I said sententiously. We 

 used to hear that President and Mrs. Kruger lived on 

 the extra allowance called " the coffee money," but 

 history never said, because they were able to do this, 

 that they were foolish enough to return the Presi- 

 dential salary. " Cecily is grovelling in the river for 

 salmon," I added; " go you and grovel too." 



I was in the confidence of both the lovers, for Cecily 

 was a lover too all right, though she was so full of 

 doubts and fears. Being a sensible woman, and a 

 thinker, she knew that marriage often proves a terrible 

 destroyer. One of the saddest things in life is that 

 love is destructible. Would not this affection of 

 theirs, which was an anachronism, and should have 

 belonged to the days of chivalry, succumb to 

 marriage? Better not to force fate. 



I do love the beauties of Nature, and Nature too 

 for her bounty and forethought, but she kills every- 

 thing. She will not let you keep. It is the one thing 

 that she strikes at. It seems so cruel. I who love 

 her so much should not call her cruel, but doesn't 

 it seem hard? "Here you are," she says, "take 

 anything you want. You can have it to play with 

 for a time." And she appears to let you have love 

 for a shorter space than anything else. What is the 



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