noble verses they had heard had carried them to a great height, and they
had not yet descended. They walked straight on toward the ever-receding
end of the path, which broadened at its extremity into a luminous glory,
a dust of sunbeams, as if all the sunshine of that lovely day awaited
them at the edge of the woods. Paul had never felt so happy. The light
arm resting on his, the childlike step by which his own was guided,
would have made life as sweet and pleasant to him as that walk upon the
mossy carpet of a green path. He would have told the young girl as much,
in words as simple as his feelings, had he not feared to alarm Aline's
confidence, caused doubtless by the feeling which she knew that he
entertained for another, and which seemed to forbid any thought of love
between them.

Suddenly, directly in front of them, a group of equestrians stood out
against the bright background, at first vague and indistinct, then
taking shape as a man and woman beautifully mounted and turning into the
mysterious path among the shafts of gold, the leafy shadows, the myriad
specks of light with which the ground was dotted, which they displaced
as they cantered forward, and which ran in fanciful designs from the
horses' breasts to the Amazon's veil. They rode slowly, capriciously,
and the two young people, who had stepped into the bushes, could see
perfectly as they passed quite near to them, with a creaking of new
leather, a jangling of bits tossed proudly and white with foam as after
a wild gallop, two superb horses bearing a human couple compelled to
ride close together by the narrowing of the path; he supporting with one
arm the flexible form moulded into a waist of dark cloth, she, with her
hand on her companion's shoulder and her little head, in profile--hidden
beneath the tulle of her half-fallen veil--resting tenderly thereon.
That amorous entwining, cradled by the impatience of the steeds, restive
under the restraint imposed upon their fiery spirits, that kiss, causing
the reins to become entangled, that passion riding through the woods in
hunting costume, in broad daylight, with such contempt of public
opinion, would have sufficed to betray the duke and Felicia, even though
the haughty and fascinating appearance of the Amazon, and the high-bred
ease of her companion, his pallid cheeks slightly flushed by the
exercise and Jenkins' miraculous pearls, had not already led to their
recognition.

It was not an extraordinary thi