, merely shook her head and pursed up her lips. The sun shone
clearly and pleasantly; the wind was fresh and brisk upon their faces,
and smelt racily of woods and meadows. As they went down into the valley
of the Thyme, the babble of the stream rose into the air like a
perennial laughter. On the far-away hills, sun-burst and shadow raced
along the slopes and leaped from peak to peak. Earth, air, and water,
each seemed in better health and had more of the shrewd salt of life in
them than upon ordinary mornings; and from east to west, from the
lowest glen to the height of heaven, from every look and touch and
scent, a human creature could gather the most encouraging intelligence
as to the durability and spirit of the universe.

Through all this walked Esther, picking her small steps like a bird, but
silent and with a cloud under her thick eyebrows. She seemed insensible,
not only of nature, but of the presence of her companion. She was
altogether engrossed in herself, and looked neither to right nor to
left, but straight before her on the road. When they came to the bridge,
however, she halted, leaned on the parapet, and stared for a moment at
the clear, brown pool, and swift, transient snowdrift of the rapids.

"I am going to drink," she said; and descended the winding footpath to
the margin.

There she drank greedily in her hands, and washed her temples with
water. The coolness seemed to break, for an instant, the spell that lay
upon her; for, instead of hastening forward again in her dull,
indefatigable tramp, she stood still where she was, for near a minute,
looking straight before her. And Dick, from above on the bridge where he
stood to watch her, saw a strange, equivocal smile dawn slowly on her
face and pass away again at once and suddenly, leaving her as grave as
ever; and the sense of distance, which it is so cruel for a lover to
endure, pressed with every moment more heavily on her companion. Her
thoughts were all secret; her heart was locked and bolted; and he stood
without, vainly wooing her with his eyes.

"Do you feel better?" asked Dick, as she at last rejoined him; and after
the constraint of so long a silence, his voice sounded foreign to his
own ears.

She looked at him for an appreciable fraction of a minute ere she
answered, and when she did, it was in the monosyllable--"Yes."

Dick's solicitude was nipped and frosted. His words died away on his
tongue. Even his eyes, despairing of encouragement