The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1925-03-13
CHAPTER VIII
While Memory Slept

No. the girl had not completely for
gotten. for IT was not exactly a blank
TO her She had a vague recollection
of number of things, but everything
appeared TO be shadowy and con-
fused, and when she tried to piece il
together, the fragments slipped out
of her grasp.
! 1t was in names and places that the
lapse chiefly occurred, Including her
own identity, and ii was this fact that
gave Lee cause for meditation.
| She had lived in the forests in child
hood. she seemed to recall a visit to
them of recent years; at any rate,
she had all the woodcraft of one to
whom the forest was home. She had
been educated in a convent, she
thought. and had been living for sew
eral years in a large city, studying.
She thought she had been studying
to be medical missionary among the
! Indians.
Thus she was not cut off from that
association of habits. tastes, and ex-
periences that goes TO make the per-
/; spnality: she did not feel that she had
lost very much, and it was always as
ii she were upon the point of remem-
bering everything.
| Out of this vague, blurred dream she
| had awakened TO find herself in the
woods with Lee, witho' the knowl-
edge of how or why she had come
there
1t might have been the conclusion
from the fall, but Lee. after pondering
over the case, decided that it was
much more like case of shell-shock,
and that the injury to her head had
been only contributing cause.
He made her crutch next morning.
and by the afternoon. she felt well
enough 70 hobble few steps about
the camp. The accident which had
temporarily ungeared her memory.
seemed TO have wrought strange
change in her nature She was no
longer wildly anxious TO push on TO
her destination; she accepted Lee as
fact in her life, and showed how COM
| pletely she trusted him, despite the
intimacy in which they were both
| living.
| He was sure that her memory
would suddenly come back to her COM
pletely. And. memory did come back
1 in dreams, as with shell-shocke5 pa
tients. but only to vanish with the
waking.
AT night Lee. lying near her beneath
another rough shelter of boughs that
he had made for himself. would hear
her tossing and moaning. and occas-
ionally uttering fragments of unintel-
ligible sentences.
Day merged into day. Lees rib was
healing well, and the girl was begin
ming to set her foot TO the ground. AT
first she was dependent upon him in
nearly everything. He helped her TO
take her first steps without the crutch,
leaning upon his shoulder. They were
always together.
1t was so wonderful a companion
ship. 1t was that comradeship of
which Lee had always dreamed And
1t was the more wonderful, perhaps,
because the girls severance from the
past gave ii a sort of unreality, as If it
were little piece of paradise which
they had snatched for themselves out
of the sum total of human happiness
Soon she began TO assume charge Of
I the camp and the cooking. And Lee.
lying at her feet. listening while she
talked. or lying awake at night be-
meath his shelter. in the dread of hear
ing her moan, came ct last TO realize
that his feeling for her was becoming
lsomefhing more than the mere enjoy
ment of her companionship.
He loved her. he sometimes admit
ted to himself; and when a word or
glance of his would send the blood
mantling into her cheek. he dared TO
think that his love was returned.
And now he cared no longer whether
her memory of the past ever came
back TO her. Almost better to let her
live in ignorance of all that had dis
tressed her.