She was so proud of this that Hugh, perforce, laughed. It was after supper, and they had walked a little way from the cabin. They were standing just above the river on a little hillock topped with three big pines. The dusk was thick about them; stars pricked the soft sky. Sylvie was wrapped in Hugh’s coat, and they were linked by their hands hanging at their sides. Every one but Sylvie had been very silent at supper, but she had told her story of Hugh’s heroism again and again until finally even Hugh had grumbled at “the fuss.” “What makes you think anyone could be afraid of you?” He smiled down at the small dark head which did not reach his shoulder. “He’s afraid I’ll kiss him. Don’t grip my hand that way; it hurts. You couldn’t be jealous of a boy! Besides, I _don’t_ kiss him any more. I never have kissed him but that once--no, twice, when I told him that I was going to be his sister.” “You told him that?” Hugh’s voice had an odd anxiety. “How did he take it?” “I don’t think he was very enthusiastic. He loves you so much, Hugh; you are the very heart of his universe, and I suppose he is jealous of your love for me. Since then he’s avoided me and is as dumb as a fish when I talk to him. I think his body has outgrown his mind, Hugh.” “Perhaps. I don’t know,” he answered. “And Bella is so silent, too. Hugh, it must have been a lonely life for you before I came. Those two people, though they love you so much, are not companionable. I think, Hugh, that they aren’t able to understand you. You are so brilliant, and they are so dull; you are so articulate, and they are so dumb; you are so warm, so quick to see, to feel, to sympathize, while they are so slow and so cold. Dear Hugh, I’m glad I came. I am stupid myself, but I have enough intelligence to understand you--a little, haven’t I, dear?” “So much more than enough!” The low speech with its tremor of humility was almost lost. “What a noise the river makes!” he said presently. “Yes. And the pines. The whole air is full of rushing and sighing and clapping and rattling. Sounds tell me so much now. They fill my whole life. It is very queer. Why, a voice means more to me now, I think, than a face ever did.... Is it a deep river, Hugh?”