For, if she flaunted herself before him, as if with an impish resolve to be his undoing, there were still times when he awed her by his words of fire, and by his high, determined stand in some circle to which she knew she could never mount.
That night when he walked with her in the moonlight, she knew he had trembled on the edge of the gulf fixed so mysteriously between them.

She had even felt herself leaning over to draw him down with her own warm arms; and then all at once he had strangely moved away, widening this mysterious gulf that always separated them, leaving her solitary, hurt, and wondering.

She could not understand it.

Life called through them so strongly.

How could he breast the mighty rush?
And why, why must it be so?
During the winter that now came upon them, it became even a greater wonder to her; for it was a time when all of them were drawn closer in a common suffering--a time of dark days which she felt they might have lightened for each other, and a time when she knew that more than ever she drew him.
For hardly had the feast of the Harvest Home gone by when food once more became scarce.