About the same time they lost the anxious hope of meeting some one from home in search of them at every turn when they went out.

Nevertheless they were becoming each day more cheerful and more active.

Ardently attached to each other, they seemed bound together by a yet more sacred tie of brotherhood.

They were now all the world to one another, and no cloud of disunion came to mar their happiness.

Hector's habitual gravity and caution were tempered by Louis's lively vivacity and ardour of temper, and they both loved Catharine, and strove to smoothe, as much as possible, the hard life to which she was exposed, by the most affectionate consideration for her comfort, and she in return endeavoured to repay them by cheerfully enduring all privations, and making light of all their trials, and taking a lively interest in all their plans and contrivances.
Louis had gone out to fish at the lake one autumn morning.