earth about in his mind to find which
of them would be most likely to afford her comfort, or at least, to put
an end to tears which, perhaps for a reason unknown to himself, gave
him excessive annoyance.

"Come, Sissy"--feebly--"give over."

But the girl went on crying, not loudly or passionately, but with no
sign of discontinuance, as she stood there, large and miserable, before
him. He settled his shoulders obstinately against the wood pile,
thinking to wait till she should speak or make some further sign.
Nothing but strength of will kept him in his place, for he would gladly
have fled from her. He had now less guidance than before to what was
passing in her mind, for her face was more hidden from his sight as the
light of the sinking sun focussed more exclusively in the fields of
western sky behind her.

Then the sun went down behind the rugged hills of the lake's other
shore; and, as it sank below their sharp outlines, their sides, which
had been clear and green, became dim and purple; the blue went out of
the waters of the lake, they became the hue of steel touched with
iridescence of gold; and above the hills, vapour that had before been
almost invisible in the sky, now hung in upright layers of purple mist,
blossoming into primrose yellow on the lower edges. A few moments more
and grey bloom, such as one sees on purple fruit, was on these vast
hangings of cloud that grouped themselves more largely, and gold flames
burned on their fringes. Behind them there were great empty reaches of
lambent blue, and on the sharp edge of the shadowed hills there was a
line of fire.

It produced in Bates unthinking irritation that Nature should quietly go
on outspreading her evening magnificence in face of his discomfort. In
ordinal light or darkness one accepts the annoyances of life as coming
all in the day's work; but Nature has her sublime moments in which, if
the sensitive mind may not yield itself to her delight, it is forced
into extreme antagonism, either to her or to that which withholds from
joining in her ecstasy. Bates was a man sensitive to many forces, the
response to which within him was not openly acknowledged to himself. He
was familiar with the magnificence of sunsets in this region, but his
mind was not dulled to the marvel of the coloured glory in which the
daylight so often culminated.

He looked off at the western sky, at first chiefly conscious of the
unhappy girl who stood in front of him and irrita