e will
proceed to explore our basket without farther ado. Only you must find a
breakfast-table for us--where it does not smell of plaster and fresh
paint, but rather, more seasonably, of spring violets. Let us walk
through the gardens till we find a shady spot and a bench. Every other
essential of an idyll is here already."

He laughed, though he did not seem to have heard; he answered half
shyly, half absently, in monosyllables.

As they walked down the steps of the gallery together, the greybearded
pensioner doffed his cap and nodded, with a sort of complacency and
paternal admiration of the handsome young couple, that made the young
man flush to his temples, as though he had heard the most hidden
secrets of his heart proclaimed from all the tree-tops.

He walked beside his companion without offering her his arm. He had
silently possessed himself of the basket, in spite of her resistance;
and she had slung her hat upon her arm in its place.

"It is not yet time for the sun to be dangerous," she said, and looked
steadily upwards at it; her face was radiant with unwonted gaiety.

"Don't we feel as if we had broken loose from prison," she said, "when
once we fairly escape from the town? A person who has always lived in
such a place as this need never grow old, I fancy--or at least, never
feel old, which would be the same thing. In fact, if I were not ashamed
of myself in the face of that venerable warrior, I feel as if I could
begin to dance, even at, my advanced age; the birds would make a
charming band."

"Come then and try," he said; "what would be the harm of it?--The
avenue is smooth enough."

She shook her head. "Breakfast first, and then, not play, but work; I
have so much to do at home, and have done nothing; the house is an
abomination to look at"--He did not press her farther, and hardly
ventured to look at her as they walked along together under the high
trees.

They did not meet a soul, the grounds were running wild; the
Burgermeister had quarrelled with the gardener over the projected
improvements, and dismissed him; so there had been a sudden stoppage,
and there were traces of this stoppage everywhere. But this unbroken
solitude made the place all the more enjoyable.

They came to a halt before a running stream that had been expanded to
an artificial lake. A wooden bridge had led across it to a little
island, where swans were kept, and a hermitage had been built beneath a
group of tall ash-trees