"Please forgive me, Madge;" and he held out his hand.
"On condition that you will never do so again, or speak of it again."
"Never?" he repeated, ruefully.
"Never!" she said, with severe emphasis.
"I won't make any such promise," he replied, stubbornly.
"Oh, very well!" and she turned to the window.
"Confound it!" he thought; "I'm not going to tie myself up by any such
pledge. I'm not sure of myself, or sure of anything, except that I'm a
free man, and that Madge won't be my sister. I shall remain free. She
herself once said in effect that I could take a straight course
when once I got my bearings, and I shall permit no more promises or
trammels till I do get them."
They passed speedily on to the end of their journey, and were the
perfection of quiet, well-bred travellers, he disguising a slightly
vexatious constraint and sense of unduly severe punishment, and she
secretly exulting over the fact that he would not make the promise.
When leaving the Kaaterskill station her eyes first rested on the
adjacent lake, and its wide extent suggested the opportunity to pull
an oar to some purpose. As the stage surmounted the last approach
to the hotel, and the valley of the Hudson, with the river winding
through it like a silver band, broke upon her vision, the apparent
cloud passed from her brow, and her pleasure was unaffected.
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