m their green sheaths; the periwinkle, with its starry
flowers and dark shining sprays, overran the borders; and the hedge
which bounded the walk was red with swollen buds. As the gazers leaned
on this close-clipped, compact hedge, they overlooked a wide extent of
country. They stood on a sort of terrace, and below them was the field
where the Greys' pet animals were wont to range. The old pony trotted
towards the terrace, as if expecting notice. Fanny's and Mary's lambs
approached and looked up, as awaiting something good. Philip amused
himself and them with odd noises, but had nothing better for them; and
so they soon scampered off, the pony throwing out his hind legs as if in
indignation at his bad entertainment. Beyond this field, a few white
cottages, in the rear of the village, peeped out from the lanes, and
seemed to sit down to rest in the meadows, so profound was the repose
which they seemed to express. The river wound quietly through the green
level, filling its channel, and looking pearly under the light spring
sky; and behind it the woods uprose, their softened masses and outlines
prophesying of leafy summer shades. Near at hand the air was alive with
twitterings: afar off, nature seemed asleep, and nothing was seen to
move but the broad sail of a wherry, and a diminished figure of a man
beside his horse, bush-harrowing in a distant green field.

Hester judged rightly that the lovers would like to have this scene to
themselves; and having surveyed it with that sigh of delight with which
Spring causes the heart to swell, she softly stole away, and sauntered
down the green walk. She proceeded till she reached a bench, whence she
could gaze upon the grey old church tower, rising between the
intervening trees, and at the same time overlook Mr Rowland's garden.
She had not sat many minutes before her husband leaped the hedge, and
bounded over the grass towards her.

"What news?" cried he. "There is good news in your face."

"There is good news in my bag, I trust." And she produced the large
square epistle, marked "Ship letter" in those red characters which have
a peculiar power of making the heart beat. She did not wonder that her
husband changed colour as she held up the letter. She knew that the
arrival of news from Frank was a great event in life to Edward. She
gloried in being, for the first time, the medium through which this rare
pleasure reached him; and she longed to share, for the first ti