VENGEANCE By what magic he cajoled her into trying her skill upon skis Anne never afterwards remembered.

It seemed to her later that the exhilarating atmosphere of that cloudless winter day must in some magic fashion have revived in her the youth which had been crushed out of existence so long ago.

A strange, irresponsible happiness possessed her, so new, so subtly sweet, that the heavy burden she had borne for so long seemed almost to have shrunk into insignificance.

It permeated her whole being like an overpowering essence, so that she forgot the seven dreary years that separated her from her girlhood, forgot the bondage to which she was returning, the constant, ever-increasing anxiety that wrought so mercilessly upon her; and remembered only the splendour of the sunshine that sparkled on the snow, and the ecstasy of the keen clear air she breathed.

It was like an enchanting dream to her, a dream through which she lived with all the greater zest because it so soon must pass.
All the pent energies of her vanished youth were in the dream.