this atmosphere suddenly to disappear, both out
of your cities and out of my deserts, both your
world and my own would lose all of their
charm."

Stephen bestirred himself. "What psychology
do you find in that?" he asked, dwelling upon
the fact that she knew his East so well.

"Merely the effect of softening things -- for the
soul as well as the eye -- through the eye, indeed,
to the soul. Our atmosphere here does that -- softens
the houses, and the trees, and the cattle, and
the mountains, and the distant reaches. It softens
our nights, too. Perhaps you have noticed it?
How everything appears shrouded in a kind of
hazy, mellow, translucent something that somehow
reacts upon you? I have. And I believe
that is the secret of one's wanting to remain in
the country, once he has exposed himself to it.
It is a kind of spell -- a hypnosis. When out of it
one wants to get back into it.

"I know I felt it when I was East, attending
school," she went on, quietly. "Living always
in this atmosphere, I somehow had forgotten its
charm -- as one will forget all subtle beauty unless
frequently and forcibly reminded of it. But
in the East I missed it, and found myself restless
and anxious to get back into it. Indeed, I felt
that I must get back or die! So one day, when
your Eastern spirit of sudden change was upon
me, I packed and came home. It was a year short
of my degree, too. But I could not remain away
another day -- simply had to get back -- and back

[[120]]

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