is
music. He knew it, he divined it by some magical instinct; he could
put into words and sounds the secrets that others could not utter--and
there his art stopped. It could not bring him within the charmed
circle--nay, it seemed to him that it was even like a fence that kept
him outside. He looked forward to a time when his art of itself must
fade, when other minstrels should arise with new secrets of power; and
what would become of him then?

He had by this time walked very far into the wood, and as he came down
through a little rise, covered with leafy thickets, he saw before him
a green track, that wound away among the trees. He followed it
listlessly. The track led him through a beech wood; the smooth and
shapely stems, that stood free of undergrowth, thickly roofed over by
firm and glossy autumn foliage, with the rusty fallen floor of last
year's leaves underfoot, brought back to him his delight in the sweet
and fresh world--so beautiful, whatever the restless human heart
desired in its presence.

He became presently aware that he was approaching some dwelling, he
knew not what; and then the trees grew thinner; and in a minute he was
out in a little forest clearing, where stood, in a small and seemly
garden, enclosed with hedges and low walls and a moat, a forest lodge,
a long low ancient building, ending in a stone tower.

The place had a singular charm. The ancient battlemented house,
overgrown with ivy, the walls green and grey with lichens, seemed to
have sprung as naturally out of the soil as the trees among which it
stood, and to have become one with the place. He lingered for a moment
on the edge of the moat, looking at a little tower that rose out of
the pool, mirrored softly in the open spaces of the water, among the
lily-leaves. The whole place seemed to have a wonderful peace about
it; there was no sound but the whisper of leaves, and the doves
crooning, in their high branching fastnesses, a song of peace.

As Paul stood thus and looked upon the garden, a door opened, and
there came out a lady, not old, but well advanced in years, with a
shrewd and kindly face; and then Paul felt a sort of shame within him,
for standing and spying at what was not his own; and he would have
hurried away, but the lady waved her hand to him with a courtly air,
as though inviting him to approach. So he came forward, and crossing
the moat by a little bridge that was hard by, he met her at the gate.
He doffed his hat, an