Right and left summit and
slope swelled and dropped, sun-tipped, shadow filled. Slants of light,
rifts of shade, touched the crowded pine tops to gold, darkened them to
sweeps of unstirred olive. The air, softly clear, was impregnated with
a powerful aromatic scent, the strong, rich odor of the earth and its
teeming growths. It lay placid and indolent before the way-worn trio,
a new world waiting for their conquering feet.
The girl, with a deep sigh, dropped her head upon her husband's
shoulder and closed her eyes. She weakened with the sudden promise of
rest. It was in the air, soft as a caress, in the mild, beneficent
sun, in the stillness which had nothing of the desert's sinister quiet.
Courant put his arm about her, and looking into her face, saw it drawn
and pinched, all beauty gone. Her closed eyelids were dark and seamed
with fine folds, the cheek bones showed under her skin, tanned to a dry
brown, its rich bloom withered. Round her forehead and ears her hair
hung in ragged locks, its black gloss hidden under the trail's red
dust. Even her youth had left her, she seemed double her age.
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