Even as he spoke a wind came crying round the house, and the parchment
windows gave forth a soft booming sound. Outside, Nature was trembling
lightly in all her nerves; belated herons, disturbed from the freshly
frozen pool, swept away on tardy wings into the night and to the south; a
herd of wolves, trooping by the hut, passed from a short, easy trot to a
low, long gallop, devouring, yet fearful. It appeared as though the dumb
earth were trying to speak, and the mighty effort gave it pain, from
which came awe and terror to living things.

So, inside the house, also, Pierre almost shrank from the unknown sorrow
of this man beside him, who was about to disclose the story of his life.
The solitary places do not make men glib of tongue; rather, spare of
words. They whose tragedy lies in the capacity to suffer greatly, being
given the woe of imagination, bring forth inner history as a mother gasps
life into the world.

"I was only a boy of twenty-one," Fawdor said from the pillow, as he
watched the dog noiselessly travelling from corner to corner, "and I had
been with the Company three years. They had said that I could rise fast;
I had done so. I was ambitious; yet I find solace in thinking that I saw
only one way to it,--by patience, industry, and much thinking. I read a
great deal, and cared for what I read; but I observed also, that in
dealing with men I might serve myself and the Company wisely.

"One day the governor of the Company came from England, and with him a
sweet lady, his young niece, and her brother. They arranged for a tour to
the Great Lakes, and I was chosen to go with them in command of the
boatmen. It appeared as if a great chance had come to me, and so said the
factor at Lachine on the morning we set forth. The girl was as winsome as
you can think; not of such wonderful beauty, but with a face that would