But she was an outcast.

Friends did not come her way.
Therefore she had gratefully received old Mr.Hazlewood in her house, and had accepted, though with some fear, his proposal that she should lunch at the big house and make the acquaintance of his son.
She was nervous at the beginning of that meal, but both father and son were at the pains to put her at her ease; and soon she was talking naturally, with a colour in her cheeks, and now and then a note of laughter in her voice.

Dick worked for the recurrence of that laughter.
He liked the clear sound of it and the melting of all her face into sweetness and tender humour which came with it.

And for another thing he had a thought, and a true one, that it was very long since she had known the pleasure of good laughter.
They took their coffee out on the lawn under the shade of a huge cedar-tree.

The river ran at their feet and a Canadian canoe and a rowing-boat were tethered close by in a little dock.