er had all the rich colors of an
opal, and so clear were they, so alike in tints and brightness, that we
seemed to hang in the midst of a rainbow bubble.

Yellow water-lilies lay on a surface of glass, like scattered gold, and
the tall, thin grasses were gold-green wires in the level light of the
sun. Each village we passed was a picture far beyond my art to paint;
and hayricks under their thatches or piles of corn stacked in rows close
to the water's edge, shone like a spray of fireworks as the darkening
sky above slowly turned to a bank of hyacinths. Passing sails were gold
at first, then brown, then pansy-purple, piercing the water with their
sharp and deep reflections. The shore-line was crowded thick with pink
and violet flower-spears, as if--said Nell--ranks of fairy soldiers had
turned out in our honor for a review.

She and Phyllis stood near me, drinking in the delicious water-smell
that mingled with the faint fragrance of closing lilies, and watching
the sun as, beaten into copper, it sent a sudden stream of flame across
the glittering crystal. I tried to feel alone with them, in a wonderful
world which was for us three and nobody else except a few swans, and
tiny water-creatures rustling among the reeds. But there was Alb at the
wheel, looking handsomer and more inscrutable than I could ever look, if
I practised for hours on end before a flattering mirror. How could I
help spoiling everything by wondering if Nell Van Buren were thinking
about him while she talked with me fitfully, dreamily? And how could I
help asking myself whether the image of the Viking did not come
blundering between Phyllis's violet eyes and mine, when she seemed to
look sweetly at me?

But it was the sort of evening when one thoroughly enjoys being restless
and unhappy, and I reveled in my pain.

Little yellow birds, yellow as the lilies which made a blazing line of
gold between green reeds and amethyst water, flitted fearlessly about
the boat, until at last the sun went down like a ruby necklace falling
into a crystal box. Then we moved through mysterious masses of purple
shadow, with here and there a diamond-gleam, or the wing of a swan like
the moon rising. And then our own little lights dipped trailing golden
tassels under the surface of the water.

"Let us anchor," said Nell, at last, "and put out our lights again, and
watch the moon rise. Oh, let us stay here all night, and wake
early--early, to see the dawn come!"

I loved