"Helen!" he cried, and dropping her hand, he caught her all trembling
to his heart; lifting her from the ground, and covering her face with
passionate kisses.

The intoxication that had so carried him away lasted but a second. With
a violent effort, she tore herself from his arms, and stood breathless,
facing him with flaming eyes. "No more!" she said. "Not another word!
thank God rather, that I have sense enough left for both, to take your
words for what they are, for the vagaries of an idle brain. Were I so
foolish as to take this nonsense for downright earnest, you should
never look upon my face again. But even a mother's indulgence has its
bounds, and if ever you are seized with such another fit of madness in
my presence, the last word will have been spoken between us two. I
shall take good care, however, that you do not so easily forget
yourself again. Hitherto I have forgiven many things; I trusted to the
natural candour of your disposition. But I am afraid you are not much
better than most young men of your age. I am sorry to believe it of
you, both for yourself and me. But it serves me right, for supposing
that ten years could be enough to know a man; even when one has brought
him up oneself!"

He stood before her without being able to utter a single word. If the
earth had opened and swallowed him up, it would have been a relief to
him. In the tumult of his ideas, he tried in vain to make her words
agree with all that he had seen and heard within the last few days; had
he ventured to look at her, he might have had some suspicion of the
struggle in her soul, while she was uttering those annihilating words.

"The rain is over;" she said after a pause, in a tone of complete
indifference, "I must go."

He prepared to follow her.

"I can find my way without you;" she said; "now that I know that the
plank is safe. Good-bye, Walter, you can send the basket by one of the
boys."

She stopped on the threshold of the hut. "See how suddenly all the
leaves have burst their buds," she said, and her voice had completely
recovered its tranquil tone. "Everything in nature has its season; we
can change nothing, and prevent nothing. Give me your hand, dear boy. I
am not going to leave you to mope by yourself, because you have just
given me another proof that you are but a child, and a dreamer of
childish dreams. I am not a bit angry with you now; so let us make
haste and forget all those ugly passionate words we said. By-an