So completely, too, was she possessed by the strong spirit of the place that the little human fear she had yielded to so strangely on our arrival seemed to have been utterly dispossessed.  As I hoped and expected, she made no reference to our conversation of the first evening.  Sangree bothered her with no special attentions, and after all they were very little together.  His behaviour was perfect in that respect, and I, for my part, hardly gave the matter another thought.  Joan was ever a prey to vivid fancies of one kind or another, and this was one of them.  Mercifully for the happiness of all concerned, it had melted away before the spirit of busy, active life and deep content that reigned over the island.  Every one was intensely alive, and peace was upon all.

* * * * *

Meanwhile the effect of the camp-life began to tell.  Always a searching test of character, its results, sooner or later, are infallible, for it acts upon the soul as swiftly and surely as the hypo bath upon the negative of a photograph.  A readjustment of the personal forces takes place quickly; some parts of the personality go to sleep, others wake up:  but the first sweeping change that the primitive life brings about is that the artificial portions of the character shed themselves one after another like dead skins.  Attitudes and poses that seemed genuine in the city drop away.  The mind, like the body, grows quickly hard, simple, uncomplex.  And in a camp as primitive and close to nature as ours was, these effects became speedily visible.

Some folk, of course, who talk glibly about the simple life when it is safely out of reach, betray themselves in camp by for ever peering about for the artificial excitements of civilisation which they miss.  Some get bored at once; some grow slovenly; some reveal the animal in most unexpected fashion; and some, the select few, find themselves in very short order and are happy.

And, in our little party, we could flatter ourselves that we all belonged to the last category, so far as the general effect was concerned.  Only there were certain other changes as well, varying with each individual, and all interesting to note.

It was only after the first week or two that these changes became marked, although this is the proper place, I think, to speak of them.  For, having myself no other duty than to enjoy a well-earned holiday, I used to load my canoe with blankets and provisions and journey forth on exploration trips among the islands of several days together; and it was on my return from the first of these—­when I rediscovered the party, so to speak—­that these changes first presented themselves vividly to me, and in one particular instance produced a rather curious impression.

In a word, then, while every one had grown wilder, naturally wilder, Sangree, it seemed to me, had grown much wilder, and what I can only call unnaturally wilder.  He made me think of a savage.