ts with fruits, and
spread over them the shade of its perfumed boughs, under which it was
so pleasant to breakfast in the early morning. Away in the meadows the
grass and the streams were all theirs; the grass, which extended their
kingdom to such boundless distance, spreading an endless silky carpet
before them; and the streams, which were the best of their joys,
emblematic of their own purity and innocence, ever offering them
coolness and freshness in which they delighted to bathe their youth. The
forest, too, was entirely theirs, from the mighty oaks, which ten men
could not have spanned, to the slim birches which a child might have
snapped; the forest, with all its trees, all its shade, all its avenues
and clearings, its cavities of greenery, of which the very birds
themselves were ignorant; the forest which they used as they listed,
as if it were a giant canopy, beneath which they might shelter from the
noontide heat their new-born love. They reigned everywhere, even among
the rocks and the springs, even over that gruesome stretch of ground
that teemed with such hideous growth, and which had seemed to sink and
give way beneath their feet, but which they loved yet even more than
the soft grassy couches of the garden, for the strange thrill of passion
they had felt there.

Thus, now, in front of them, behind them, to the right of them and
to the left, all was theirs. They had gained possession of the whole
domain, and they walked through a friendly expanse which knew them, and
smiled kindly greetings to them as they passed, devoting itself to their
pleasure, like a faithful and submissive servitor. The sky, with its
vast canopy of blue overhead, was also theirs to enjoy. The park walls
could not enclose it, their eyes could ever revel in its beauty, and it
entered into the joy of their life, at daytime with its triumphal sun,
at night with its golden rain of stars. At every moment of the day it
delighted them afresh, its expression ever varying. In the early morning
it was pale as a maiden just risen from her slumber; at noon, it was
flushed, radiant as with a longing for fruitfulness, and in the
evening it became languid and breathless, as after keen enjoyment. Its
countenance was constantly changing. Particularly in the evenings, at
the hour of parting, did it delight them. The sun, hastening towards the
horizon, ever found a fresh smile. Sometimes he disappeared in the
midst of serene calmness, unflecked by a sing