He turned to Sylvia and slipped his arm through hers.
"Come close," said he, and now there was no doubt the smile was real.
"Shall we keep step, do you think ?" "If we go always like this, we might," said Sylvia, with a smile.
"At times there will be a step to be cut, no doubt," said he.
"You once said that I could stand firm while the step was being cut," she answered.

Always at the back of both their minds, evident from time to time in some such phrase as this, was the thought of the mountain upon which their friendship had been sealed.

Friendship had become love here in the quiet Dorsetshire village, but in both their thoughts it had another background--ice-slope and rock-spire and the bright sun over all..