"
"It grieved you," he repeated in a softer tone. "Hereafter I wish you
would confide all your griefs to me the moment you are aware of them."
"To tell the truth, I don't expect to have any more." She laughed her
old joyous friendly laugh, and he stretched his arm across her lap to
adjust the robe more closely to her form. Her attitude towards him had
completely changed, concretely as well as abstractly, for now she sat
cosily and contentedly by his side, instead of perching herself a yard
away, and allowing the winter winds to emphasize the coldness that had
existed between them. This wonderful improvement in the mental
atmosphere made them oblivious to a change in the outer air until
Helene remarked upon the peculiar odour of smoke about them. This
increased until it became almost stifling. Evidently the blazing brush
heap, lit by the hand of some thrifty settler, had extended further
than he was aware of. The smoke blew past them, and they were in the
midst of that vividly picturesque spectacle--a fire in the forest. The
flames ran swiftly up the dry, dead limbs, turning trees into huge
blazing torches, and the light underbrush beneath them took on
beautiful and fantastic shapes of fire.
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