nd, he fell into
a brown study. Audrey sat very still for fear that she might disturb him,
who was so kind to her. A passionate gratitude filled her young heart; she
would have traveled round the world upon her knees to serve him. As for
him, he was not thinking of the mountain girl, the oread who, in the days
when he was younger and his heart beat high, had caught his light fancy,
tempting him from his comrades back to the cabin in the valley, to look
again into her eyes and touch the brown waves of her hair. She was ashes,
and the memory of her stirred him not.

At last he looked up. "I myself will take you home, child. This fellow
shall not come near you. And cease to think of these gruesome things that
happened long ago. You are young and fair; you should be happy. I will see
to it that"--

He broke off, and again looked thoughtfully at the ground. The book which
he had tossed aside was lying upon the grass, open at the poem which he
had been reading. He stooped and raised the volume, and, closing it, laid
it upon the bench beside her. Presently he laughed. "Come, child!" he
said. "You have youth. I begin to think my own not past recall. Come and
let me show you my dial that I have just had put up."

There was no load at Audrey's heart: the vision of Molly had passed; the
fear of Hugon was a dwindling cloud. She was safe in this old sunny
garden, with harm shut without. And as a flower opens to the sunshine, so
because she was happy she grew more fair. Audrey every day, Audrey of the
infrequent speech and the wide dark eyes, the startled air, the shy,
fugitive smiles,--that was not Audrey of the garden. Audrey of the garden
had shining eyes, a wild elusive grace, laughter as silvery as that which
had rung from her sister's lips, years agone, beneath the sugar-tree in
the far-off blue mountains, quick gestures, quaint fancies which she
feared not to speak out, the charm of mingled humility and spirit; enough,
in short, to make Audrey of the garden a name to conjure with.

They came to the sun-dial, and leaned thereon. Around its rim were graved
two lines from Herrick, and Audrey traced the letters with her finger.
"The philosophy is sound," remarked Haward, "and the advice worth the
taking. Let us go see if there are any rosebuds to gather from the bushes
yonder. Damask buds should look well against your hair, child."

When they came to the rosebushes he broke for her a few scarce-opened
buds, and himself fastene