"Ah!" exclaimed Vane; "don't you long for another sight of it now
and then?"

The girl smiled in a way that troubled him.

"I'm wearying for it always; and some day, perhaps, I'll win back for
another glimpse at the old place."

"You wouldn't go to stay?"

"That would be impossible! What would I do yonder, after this other life?
Once you leave the old land, you can never quite get back again."

Vane lay smoking in silence for a minute or two. On another occasion he
had felt the thrill of the exile's longing that spoke through the girl's
song, and now he recognized the truth of what she said. One changed in
the West, acquiring a new outlook which diverged more and more from that
held by those at home. Only a wistful tenderness for the motherland
remained. Still, alien in thought and feeling as he had become, he was
going back there for a time; and she, as she had said, must resume her
work. A feeling of anger at his impotence to alter this came upon him.

Then Carroll came up with Mrs. Marvin and Elsie, and he felt strongly
stirred when the little girl walked up to him shyly with a basket filled
with shells and bright fir-cones. He drew her down beside him with an arm
about her waist while he examined her treasures. Glancing up he met
Kitty's eyes and felt his face grow hot with an emotion he failed to
analyze. The little mite was frail and delicate; life, he surmised, had
scanty pleasure to offer her; but now she was happy.