t as what the scythe had
missed; now she was made to notice what an elegant fringe it was, and
how the same sunlight glanced upon its curving stems and blades, and
set off the deep brown stream. Diana's own eyes began to be quickened,
and her tongue loosed. The lovely outline of the hills that encircled
the valley had never looked just so rare and lovely as this afternoon
when she pointed them out to her companion, and he scanned them and
nodded in full assent. But when they got into the ravine, it was
Diana's turn. Mosses, and old trees, and sharp turns of the gorge, and
fords, where it was necessary to cross the brook and recross on
stepping stones just lifting them above the water, here black
enough,--Diana knew all these things, and with secret delight unfolded
the knowledge of them to her companion as they went along. And still
the bits of blue sky overhead had never seemed so unearthly blue; the
drapery of oak and hemlock boughs had never been so graceful and
bright; there was a presence in the old gorge that afternoon, which
went with them and cleared their eyes from vapour and their minds from
everything, it seemed, but a susceptibility to beauty and delight in
its influence. Perhaps the young officer would have said that this
presence was embodied in the unconscious eyes and fair calm brow which
went beside him; I think he saw them more distinctly than anything
else. Diana did not know it. Somehow she very rarely looked her
companion in the face; and yet she knew very well how his face looked,
too; so well, perhaps, that she did not need to refresh her memory. So
they wandered on; and the fords were pleasant places, where she had to
be helped over the stones. Not that Diana needed such help; her foot
was fearless and true; she never had had help there before: was that
what made it so pleasant? Certainly it did seem to her that it was a
prettier way of going up the brook than alone and unaided.

"I am not getting much fish at this rate," said young Knowlton at
length with a light laugh.

"No," said Diana. "Why don't you stop and try here? Here looks like a
good place. Right in that still, deep spot, I dare say there are trout.

"What will you do in the meantime, if I stop and fish? It will be very
stupid for you."

"For me? O no. I shall sit here and look on. It will not be stupid. I
will keep still, never fear."

"I don't want you to keep still; that would be very stupid for me."

"You can't talk while y