Audrey

Haward rose from the grass, and, with his back to the gray hole of the

willow, looked first at the veil of leaf and stem through which dimly

showed house, orchard, and blue sky, then down upon the girl at his feet.

Her head was bent and she sat very still, one listless, upturned hand upon

the grass beside her, the other lying as quietly among her flowers.

"Audrey," he said at last, "you shame me in your thoughts of me. I am not

that knight without fear and without reproach for which you take me. Being

what I am, you must believe that you have not wearied me; that I think of

you and wish to see you. And Hugon, having possibly some care for his own

neck, will do me no harm; that is a very foolish notion, which you must

put from you. Now listen." He knelt beside her and took her hand in his.

"After a while, perhaps, when the weather is cooler, and I must open my

house and entertain after the fashion of the country; when the new

Governor comes in, and all this gay little world of Virginia flocks to

Williamsburgh; when I am a Councilor, and must go with the rest, and must

think of gold and place and people,--why, then, maybe, our paths will

again diverge, and only now and then will I catch the gleam of your skirt,

mountain maid, brown Audrey!

But now in these midsummer days it is a

sleepy world, that cares not to go bustling up and down. I am alone in my

house; I visit not nor am visited, and the days hang heavy. Let us make

believe for a time that the mountains are all around us, that it was but

yesterday we traveled together. It is only a little way from Fair View to

the glebe house, from the glebe house to Fair View. I will see you often,

little maid, and you must dream no more as you dreamed last night." He

paused; his voice changed, and he went on as to himself: "It is a lonely

land, with few to see and none to care. I will drift with the summer,

making of it an idyl, beautiful,--yes, and innocent! When autumn comes I

will go to Westover."

Of this speech Audrey caught only the last word. A wonderful smile, so

bright was it, and withal so sad, came into her face. "Westover!" she said

to herself. "That is where the princess lives."

"We will let thought alone," continued Haward. "It suits not with this

charmed light, this glamour of the summer." He made a laughing gesture.

"Hey, presto! little maid, there go the years rolling back! I swear I see

the mountains through the willow leaves."