to stringing whimsies together. He and
I "pretended" that the bees were a fairy band, playing to a hidden
audience in a theatre roofed with the silver sheen of arching ferns.
Wafts of perfume came to us, cooled in woodsy dells, or warmed on
sunshiny banks of flowers; but not a soul could be seen anywhere, nor a
house. We knew that this was an inhabited world only by the wires
stretched across the river for the sending of letters and parcels.

Sunset-time had not nearly come yet, but already a silver slit was torn
in the blue of the sky; and for the second time the heather moon was
smiling its bright semicircular smile, as if to say, "Make the most of
me, Barrie, _your_ time is short!" Yet how could I make the most of her
when I could see only my knight's back, with a purple shoulder as close
to his as possible, and the heather moon was _ours_?

Suddenly Basil said, "Oh, there's your heather moon! I thought of you
yesterday after it rose until it set, and wondered what you were doing.
I do believe this _is_ different from other moons. Don't you see, young
as it is, how it has power to change the yellow of the sunlight, seeming
to alloy it with silver?"

I did see, but thought I must have fancied the effect, until he saw it
too. (We often think and see and say the same things, which is nice, but
not so exciting as the society of a man who thinks different things and
makes you argue.) The silver pouring down from that small crescent
seemed to sift through the strong golden light in a separate and
distinct radiance. It shimmered on the sea of waving hills and billowing
mountains that opened out before us, as if sprinkling a glitter of
sequins over the vivid green and amber and purple. Wherever there was
shadow this pale glimmer painted it with ethereal colours, like the
backs of rainbow fish moving under water. I might have jumped out of the
car and found the rainbow key, but nobody wanted it now!

"Just as that young, young moon has power to shine through the strong
afternoon sunlight, so a girl may all in a moment throw her influence
over a group of people older and more experienced than herself," said
Basil, smiling at me, and then at Mrs. James, as if he didn't mind her
hearing the flowery compliment.

"I don't know any such girl in real life," said I; "but you might work
her up for your book."

"I shall have to put her in, if the book's to be written," said he.

By and by we came to the lake, or, rather, far abo