with a
shadow-glass of wine.

"But shall I tell you a strange thing? Since you came into the valley,
these mist-images of my dead masters grow faint and thinner than ever."

"You will remember me, also, when I have gone?"

"Do not speak of it! But yes, if you should go, every spring, when these
yellow flowers blossom, you would return to me and sit as you are
sitting now. However you are young, yet there are ways. After Matthew
died, for a long time I kept fresh flowers in his room and kept his
memory fresh with them. But," he repeated, "you are young. Do not talk
of death!"

"Not of death, but of leaving the Garden."

He stared gravely at her, and flushed.

"You are tormenting me as I used to torment my masters when I was a boy.
But it is wrong to anger me. Besides I shall not let you go."

"Not _let_ me go?"

"Am I a fool?" he asked hotly. "Why should I let you go?"

"You could not keep me."

It brought him to his feet with a start.

"What will free you?"

"Your own honor, David."

His head fell.

"It is true. Yes, it is true. But let us ride on. I no longer am pleased
with this place. It is tarnished; there are unhappy thoughts here!"

"What a child he is!" thought the girl, as she climbed into the saddle
again. "A selfish, terrible, wonderful child!"

It seemed, after that, that the purpose of David was to show the
beauties of the Garden to her until she could not brook the thought of
leaving. He told her what grew in each meadow and what could be reaped
from it.

He told her what fish were caught in the river and the lake. He talked
of the trees. He swung down from Glani, holding with hand and heel, and
picked strange flowers and showed them to her.

"What a place for a house!" she said, when, near the north wall, they
passed a hill that overlooked the entire length of the valley.

"I shall build you a house there," said David eagerly. "I shall build it
of strong rock. Would that make you happy? Very tall, with great rooms."

An impish desire to mock him came to her.

"Do you know what I'm used to? It's a boarding house where I live in a
little back bedroom, and they call us to meals with a bell."

The humor of this situation entirely failed to appeal to him.

"I also," he said, "have a bell. And it shall be used to call you to
dinner, if you wish."

He was so grave that she did not dare to laugh. But for some reason that
moment of bantering brought the big fellow much closer to her t