“What is there so repulsive about me? Why should I be treated as a viper? And why is it that of all the men I have known--men whom I could handle as putty--this obscure backwoods doctor sets himself wholly apart from me, remains utterly impregnable, shames and humiliates me with a veiled pity, and feels not the slightest touch of the power that I know myself to have? Is my face ugly? Are my manners crude? Is my voice repellent? Where are my resources of womanly tact that I have used successfully in the past? Why is it that I fail utterly to impress him as having a single admirable trait, a single grace of appearance, manner, or character? “It is hard to bear all this. I try to be brave and strong and cheerful, as he always is; but it is human nature to resent his treatment, and it is cruel of him to keep me in such a position. It is the first time in my life that I have been at a disadvantage. “I imagine that he has suffered some great sorrow. Indeed, he said so in his outburst. His distrust of me seems to indicate its character. He probably gave some heartless woman his whole love, his whole soul, and she laughed at him and cast him off. That would go hard with a man of his kind. There can be no other explanation; and now I am the sufferer for that woman’s sin: he thinks that all women are like her. “I will write this vow, so that I may turn to it often and strengthen my purpose by reading it: “I will make this man like me. I will tear down the wall that he has built between us. I will employ every resource to bring him to my feet. I will make him appreciate me. I will make him need me. I will make him want me. “That is my vow.” Thus end, again for the present, these extracts from the lady’s journal. CHAPTER TEN THE severity of the winter did not relax. There were intervals when the wind did not blow and the snow did not fall; but there were neither warm winds nor sunshine to melt the snow, the depth of which grew steadily and aggravated the impassableness of the roads. Day by day, week by week, month by month it strengthened the bars of the prison holding the two unhappy souls. With the prolonged and increasing rigors of the winter harder and harder grew the rigors of the prison. The strength of Wilder’s spirit was beginning to break down; and while it distressed his fair charge to see him suffer, it warmed her heart to realize that the day of her triumph was near,--the day when she should serve him as gently, as unselfishly, as faithfully as he had served her. It would be sweet to have him helpless, to have him lean upon her, need her, want her.