Carroll laughed.

"Mabel," he remarked a few moments later to Vane, "is unguarded in what
she says, but she now and then shows signs of being considerably older
than her years."

They left the black peat-soil behind them, and the heather gave place to
thin and more fragile ling, beaded with its unopened buds, while fangs of
rock cropped out here and there. Then turning the flank of a steep
ascent, they reached the foot of a shingly scree, and sat down to lunch
in the warm sunshine where the wind was cut off by the peak above.
Beneath them, a great rift opened up among the rocks, and far beyond the
blue lake in the depths of it they could catch the silver gleam of the
distant sea.

The fishing creel in which the provisions had been carried was promptly
emptied; and when Mabel afterward took Carroll away to climb some
neighboring crags, Vane lay resting on one elbow not far from Evelyn. She
was looking down the long hollow, with the sunshine, which lighted a
golden sparkle in her brown eyes, falling upon her face.

"You didn't seem to mind the climb."

"I enjoyed it;" Evelyn declared, glancing at the cloudberry blossom in
her belt. "I really am fond of the mountains, and I have to thank you for
a day among them."

On the surface the words offered an opening for a complimentary
rejoinder; but Vane was too shrewd to seize it. He had made one venture,