After this we walked back in the direction of Gladwyn, and nothing more was said about the letter.  We listened to the rooks cawing from the elms, and we stood and watched a lark rising from the long meadow before Maplehurst and singing as though its little throat would burst with its concentrated ecstasy of song; and when I asked Max if he did not think the world more beautiful than usual that morning, he smiled, and suddenly quoted Tennyson’s lines, in a voice musical with happiness: 

’All the land in flowery squares,
Beneath a broad and equal-flowing wind,
Smelt of the coming summer, as one large cloud
Drew downward; but all else of heaven was pure
Up to the sun, and May from verge to verge,
And May with me from heel to heel.’

’Yes, but, Max, it is July now.  The air is too mellow for spring.  Your quotation is not quite apt.’

’Oh, you are realistic; but it fits well enough.  Do you not remember how the poem goes on?

“The garden stretches southward.  In the midst
A cedar spread its dark-green layers of shrub. 
The garden-glasses shone, and momently
The twinkling laurel scattered silver lights.”

I always think of Gladwyn when I read that description.’

I laughed mischievously:  ’I am sorry to leave you just as you are in a poetical vein; but I must positively go in.  Good-bye, Max,’ I felt I had lingered a little too long when I saw the blinds raised in Mr. Hamilton’s study.  But apparently the room was empty.  I sauntered past it leisurely, and walked down the asphalt path.  On my return I picked one or two roses, wet with dew.  As I raised my head from gathering them I saw Leah standing at the side door watching me.

‘Oh, it was you,’ she grumbled.  ’I thought one of those girls had left the door unlocked.  A pretty piece of carelessness that would have been to reach the master’s ears!  You are out early, ma’am.’

I was somewhat surprised at these remarks, for Leah had made a point of always passing me in sullen silence since I had refused her admittance into the sick-room.  Her manner was hardly civil now, but I thought it best to answer her pleasantly.

’Yes, Leah, I have taken my stroll early.  It was very warm last night, and I did not sleep well.  There is nothing so refreshing as a morning walk after a bad night.  I am going to take these roses to Miss Gladys.’  But she tossed her head and muttered something about people being mighty pleasant all of a sudden.  And, seeing her in this mood, I walked away.  She was a bad-tempered, coarse-natured woman, and I could not understand why Mr. Hamilton seemed so blind to her defects.  ’I suppose he never sees her; that is one reason,’ I thought, as I carried up my roses.

Gladys was still asleep.  I had finished my breakfast, and had helped Chatty arrange the turret-room for the day, when I heard the long-drawn sigh that often preluded Gladys’s waking.  I hastened to her side, and found her leaning on her elbow looking at my roses.