He had not seen her dressed in that fashion before, and, after the years that he had spent in lonely bush and noisy railroad camp, her beauty and daintiness had an almost disconcerting effect on him.

She drew a low chair a little nearer the hearth, and, sinking into it, motioned to him to be seated.
"My father is busy, and Nellie Farquhar will not be down for a little while," she said.

"We shall probably have half an hour to ourselves, and I want you to tell me all that you have been doing since we left you." Weston understood that she meant to resume their acquaintance--though he was not sure that was quite the correct word for it--at the point at which it had been broken off, and he was rather glad that she asked him what he had been doing.

It was a safe topic and naturally one on which he could converse, and he felt that any silence or sign of constraint would have been inadmissible.
"Oh," he said, "we went up to look for the mine again." "You were not successful ?" "No," said Weston.

"It was winter, and we had rather a rough time in the ranges.