But before he reached
home his anger had passed away, and with it all remembrance of the
cold maiden and the unpleasant evening she had given him. In their
place lived an intense recollection of a tawny woman, beautiful and
warm-blooded; and his heart thrilled with a tumult of emotions at the
memory of her lustrous velvet lips closely pressed within his wounded
hand.
CHAPTER IX.
ON THE WAY TO THE CAPITAL.
From early summer to late autumn, from assurance of bloom to certainty
of frost, is but a step--the step between life and death. The
murmuring leaves and waters on the shores of Kempenfeldt Bay had
learned a louder and harsher melody--the wild wind-prophecy of winter.
For a brief season Indian summer came to re-illumine the despairing
days, and the larches, set aflame by her hand, flashed like lights.
Then through the softly tinted wood broke the Autumn brightness upon
delicate shimmering birch trees, red sumachs, purple tinged sassafras,
golden rod and asters; but now the oaks and beeches had changed their
velvet green raiment to dull brown, and all the wild woods, after the
pitiless and well-nigh perpetual rains of Fall, were stricken and
discoloured.
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