“You are not angry at my presumption?”

“Angry?—­I?” and she stopped and faced me, holding back her hair as she did so.  “I am a woman, Monsieur; and all women, even those of us hidden here in the wilderness, like best those who admire them.  I do not know that I am as beautiful as you say, yet other men have often said the same without being pressed for their opinion.  No, I am not angry,—­I am even glad to know you think so.”

“And you surely do know?” I insisted, with a courage strange to me.

“Yes,” she answered, but her eyes fell before my eagerness; “you are not one who has yet learned to lie, even to women.  ’T is a relief to know there are such men still in the world.”

We had come to a full halt by this time.

“Do you have any idea where we may be?” she asked, peering anxiously about, and perhaps glad to change the tone of our conversation.  “I cannot note a landmark of any kind.  These sand-hills seem all alike.”

“I believe we have kept to the southward, for we have merely drifted with the storm; but I confess my sole guidance has been the direction of the wind, as these sand-lanes are most confusing.  If there were the slightest shelter at hand, I should insist upon your waiting until the rain was over.”

“No, it is better to go on.  I am now wet to the skin, and shall be warmer moving than resting on this damp sand.”

We must have been moving for an hour, scarcely speaking a word, for the severe exertion required all our breath.  The rain had ceased, and stars began to glimmer amid the cloud-rifts overhead; but I knew now that we were lost.  She stopped suddenly, and sank down upon the sand.

“I am exhausted,” she admitted, “and believe we are merely moving about in a circle.”

“Yes,” I said, reluctantly; “we are wasting our strength to no purpose.  ’T will be better to wait for daylight here.”

It was a gloomy place, and the silence of those vast expanses of desolate sand was overwhelming.  It oppressed me strangely.

“Let me feel the touch of your hand,” she said once.  “It is so desperately lonely.  I have been on the wide prairie, at night and alone; yet there is always some sound there upon which the mind may rest.  Here the stillness is like a weight.”

Possibly I felt this depressing influence the more because of my long forest training, where at least the moaning of limbs, fluttering of leaves, or flitting of birds brings relief to the expectant senses; while here all was absolute solitude, so profound that our breathing itself was startling.  The air above appeared empty and void; the earth beneath, lifeless and dead.  Although neither of us was cowardly of heart, yet we instinctively drew closer together, and our eyes strained anxiously over the black sand-ridges, now barely discernible through the dense gloom.  We tried to talk, but even that soon grew to be a struggle, so heavily did the suspense rest upon our