log house his aim, and staring for the most part at the lone hills,
under the pine woods of which his late companions had disappeared, his
heart gradually grew more heavy; all the more because the cheerfulness
of their society had buoyed up his spirit in their presence, did it now
suffer depression. The awful presentiment began to haunt him that he
would not find the girl that night, that he had in grim reality "lost
her." If this were the case, what a fool, what a madman, he had been to
let go the only aid within his reach! He stopped his rowing for a
minute, and almost thought of turning to call the surveying party back
again. But no, Sissy might be--in all probability was--already in the
house; in that case what folly to have brought them back, delaying their
work and incurring their anger! So he reasoned, and went on towards
home; but, in truth, it was not their delay or displeasure that deterred
him so much as his own pride, which loathed the thought of laying bare
his cause for fear and distress.




CHAPTER VI.


The day was duller now. The sun, in passing into the western sky, had
entered under thicker veils of white. The film of ice on the bay, which
had melted in the pale sunbeams of noon, would soon form again. The air
was growing bitterly cold.

When Bates had moored his boat, he went up the hill heavily. The dog,
which had been shut in the house to guard it, leaped out when he opened
the door. Sissy was not there.