ely down to or from a bright,
clear-running trout-stream, that wandered along about a quarter of a
mile farther on; and often, in the hot weather, a person standing half
way down the walk might see a tall antlered fellow standing with his
forefeet in the water and his hind-quarters raised upon the bank, gazing
at himself in the liquid mirror below, with all his graceful beauties
displayed to the uttermost by a burst of yellow light, which towards
noon always poured upon the stream at that place.

Marlow and Emily, however, were quite alone upon the walk. Not even a
hind or shart was there; and after the first two or three steps, Marlow
asked his fair companion to take his arm. She did so, readily; for she
needed it, not so much because the long gnarled roots of the trees
crossed the path from time to time, and offered slight impediments, for
usually her foot was light as air, but because she felt an unaccountable
languor upon her, a tremulous, agitated sort of unknown happiness unlike
any thing else she had ever before experienced.

Marlow drew her little hand through his then, and she rested upon it,
not with the light touch of a mere acquaintance, but with a gentle
confiding pressure which was very pleasant to him, and yet the
capricious man must needs every two or three minutes, change that kindly
position as the trees and irregularities of the walk afforded an excuse.
Now he placed Emily on the one side, now on the other, and if she had
thought at all (but by this time she was far past thought,) she might
have fancied that he did so solely for the purpose of once more taking
her hand in his to draw it through his arm again.

At the spot where the walk struck the stream, and before it proceeded
onward by the bank, there was a little irregular open space not twenty
yards broad in any direction, canopied over by the tall branches of an
oak, and beneath the shade about twelve yards from the margin of the
stream, was a pure, clear, shallow well of exceedingly cold water, which
as it quietly flowed over the brink went on to join the rivulet below.
The well was taken care of, kept clean, and basined in plain flat
stones; but there was no temple over it, Gothic or Greek. On the side
farthest from the stream was a plain wooden bench placed for the
convenience of persons who came to drink the waters which were supposed
to have some salutary influence, and there by tacit consent Marlow and
Emily seated themselves side by sid