The community of isolation drew them closer.

In place of a companion he had assumed the part of friend, to whom she could confide all her home-sick aspirations.

So that, even when she was sitting silent, a slim, long foot stretched out in front, bending with an air of cool absorption over some pencil sketches which she would not show him--even then, by her very attitude, by the sweet freshness that clung about her, by her quick, offended glances at the strange persons round, she seemed to acknowledge in some secret way that he was necessary.

He was far from realising this; his intellectual and observant parts were hypnotised and fascinated even by her failings.

The faint freckling across her nose, the slim and virginal severeness of her figure, with its narrow hips and arms, the curve of her long neck-all were added charms.