"You are still trembling from the shock that I have given you," he said in
a tone of self-reproach, and noticing how the flowers quivered in her
grasp, "pray, pardon me and give me a handshake of welcome, or I shall
almost regret that I came."

She looked up frankly into his dark eyes, and laid her small hand
unhesitatingly in his.

"You are very welcome, Mr. Heath," she said, "and I am sure that papa will
be very glad to see you."

William Heath smiled at her words.

He felt sure that she, too, was glad to see him--that his coming was a
pleasant break in the monotony of her life; her varying color, the bright,
happy gleam of her eyes told him this.

Her wonderful beauty, so out of place in that wild region, thrilled him
strangely. Her queenly manner, her delicacy and refinement astonished him,
and he wondered more and more what mysterious circumstances could have
combined to drive two such cultivated people so far from civilization to
hide themselves in the rugged fastnesses of those dreary mountains.




Chapter IV.

A Mountain Ramble.