nd to look through the noble colonnade into
mysterious vistas of copsewood gloom and stillness was for me to thrill
with that blissful agony of youthful emotion which is our first
premonition of the unreachable secret that underlies the universe.

"Did you ever think," said Harry to me earnestly, "that you would like
to leave the world behind you for ever and live altogether in the woods,
with only the trees and birds for company?"

But, dearly although I loved the woods, I could not answer him that I
should be willing to resign my home, my mother, my friends and social
joys for the life of a hermit.

"It's pleasant to see people," I suggested.

"I'm not sure of that," Harry rejoined with sudden misanthropy. "See
what a hard world it is! I feel to-day like Achilles in his tent."

"But I don't like Achilles: he was only sullen because he had lost
Briseis. Surely, Harry, you don't mind it that Georgy has gone on with
Jack?"

Harry laughed loud and long: "That would be a good joke! As if I cared
for Georgy Lenox! But it does make me angry to see Jack so taken up with
her. Did you see her new shoes?"

There could be no question of that.

"Jack bought them for her," said Harry with angry emphasis. "He spends
all his money on her, and I think it is a shame. She told him at first
she could not come to-day, because she had nothing to wear on her feet
except thin slippers. What does Jack do but post off to John Edwards and
buy her a pair of boots at once!" He paused a moment, then burst out:
"Just look at them!"

Georgy had flung her flowers at Jack, and having jumped across the
little brook which meandered through the wood, now nodded at him
defiantly, tossing her long curls, while her eyes sparkled and her color
rose. He too sprang over the stream, with pretended anger, and she gave
a little shriek and flew down the path, with him in pursuit. Jack was
clumsy and not built for speed, while Georgy had the spring of a fawn;
but I suspect she was willing to be caught, for when we next gained a
glimpse of them she was sitting on a stump fanning herself with her
broad-brimmed hat, which had fallen off, while he was leaning against a
tree looking at her.

"He has kissed her--I know he has," Harry whispered to me with a bitter
look. "I would die before I would kiss her when she behaved like that!"

I was in a sort of tremor. I was too young to be in love in the ordinary
sense of the phrase, but I was aghast at the thought