l-tops; and all the while he kept wondering if
he had never seen such things before, or how it was that they should look
so different now. The sound of his own mill-wheel, or of the wind among
the trees, confounded and charmed his heart. The most enchanting
thoughts presented themselves unbidden in his mind. He was so happy that
he could not sleep at night, and so restless that he could hardly sit
still out of her company. And yet it seemed as if he avoided her rather
than sought her out.

One day, as he was coming home from a ramble, Will found Marjory in the
garden picking flowers, and, as he came up with her, slackened his pace
and continued walking by her side.

"You like flowers?" he said.

"Indeed I love them dearly," she replied. "Do you?"

"Why, no," said he, "not so much. They are a very small affair when all
is done. I can fancy people caring for them greatly, but not doing as you
are just now."

"How?" she asked, pausing and looking up at him.

"Plucking them," said he. "They are a deal better off where they are, and
look a deal prettier, if you go to that."

"I wish to have them for my own," she answered, "to carry them near my
heart, and keep them in my room. They tempt me when they grow here; they
seem to say, 'Come and do something with us'; but once I have cut them
and put them by, the charm is laid, and I can look at them with quite an
easy heart."

"You wish to possess them," replied Will, "in order to think no more
about them. It's a bit like killing the goose with the golden eggs. It's
a bit like what I wished to do when I was a boy. Because I had a fancy
for looking out over the plain, I wished to go down there--where I
couldn't look out over it any longer. Was not that fine reasoning? Dear,
dear, if they only thought of it, all the world would do like me; and you
would let your flowers alone, just as I stay up here in the mountains."
Suddenly he broke off sharp. "By the Lord!" he cried. And when she asked
him what was wrong, he turned the question off, and walked away into the
house with rather a humorous expression of face.

He was silent at table; and after the night had fallen and the stars had
come out overhead, he walked up and down for hours in the courtyard and
garden with an uneven pace. There was still a light in the window of
Marjory's room: one little oblong patch of orange in a world of dark blue
hills and silver starlight. Will's mind ran a great deal on the window;
but his