She was silent a few moments, as if too much affected to speak. Hammond truly and deeply loved this girl, and had all the eagerness of a young lover to carry away the prize with him. He had spent several months here, held solely by the magnetism of her presence. We have described in the first chapter his singular meeting with her, and the deep impression her appearance and her act of kindness had made upon him. True to his declaration, he had left his companions, and had devoted all to searching her out. He knew that she dwelt somewhere in this neighborhood, but it was a long time before he could discover her. Seemingly by pure accident he had encountered her a few days before. As may be supposed, she was greatly surprised to see him, and their first interview was quite embarrassing upon both sides. But their acquaintance rapidly progressed, until we have shown how he learned much regarding her early history, and finally declared his love to her. It was plain, and Hammond saw that he had awakened a tender interest in her, but she had not yet reached the point of giving her love unreservedly to him. She was strongly attached to Kipwan and her Meagan friends, and it was a painful struggle for her to decide to leave them forever. “You have grown up among the people who have treated you kindly, and to whom you feel devotedly attached. It is natural that you should; _I_ love them because of their kindness to you; but you are fitted for another life than this; go with me, and you shall never regret the step.” Hitherto the two had been standing, but now Hammond conducted her some distance from the path to a flat rock, where the two seated themselves. It was a bright sunshiny day; they were enveloped in shrubbery and undergrowth, which were so dense about them, that they were invisible to any one a short distance away. They sat in silence for a few moments; their hearts too full for speech. _She_ was thinking how much she loved the noble figure beside her: how happy she could be to yield her heart to him, and to go where she could be wholly his. But-- “Can I? Is it best? Heaven direct me!” She prayed earnestly for guidance, for, like the simple-minded people among whom she dwelt, she was a devout believer in the protecting care of heaven. It was hard for her to decide, and still the struggle went on. Hammond was partly sitting and reclining, and now and then gazing up in the face of the maid beside him. It seemed to him that with each look the wonderful loveliness of her face increased. “She is beautiful--surpassingly beautiful,” he thought, as he looked, returning again and again to feast upon the vision. “No one can help admiring her; no one can deny that she is faultless in form and feature, and yet it is not _that_ alone which has drawn me toward her. She is devoutly religious, good, and with a heart of the tenderest sympathy. I _must_ have her; I can not live without her.”