Lois knelt there on the bank. The soldiers' linen I had seen in
her arms was piled beside her. In a willow basket, newly woven, I
saw a heap of clean, wet shirts and tow-cloth rifle-frocks.
She heard me behind her— I took care that she should— but she
made no sign that she had heard or knew that I was there. Even when
I spoke she continued busy with her suds and shirts; and I walked
around the gravelly basin and seated myself near her, cross-legged
on the sand, both hands clasping my knees.
"Well?" she asked, still scrubbing, and her hair was fallen in
curls about her brow— hair thicker and brighter, though scarce
longer, than my own. But Lord! The wild-rose beauty that flushed
her cheeks as she laboured there! And when she at last looked up at
me her eyes seemed like two grey
