“You come again in two week—­I change all that!  And now,” he added, “I go to shoot little bird or two,” and he disappeared into the golden haze under the olive-trees.

A minute later we heard his gun go off, and returned homeward with a prayer.

1910.

MAGPIE OVER THE HILL

I lay often that summer on a slope of sand and coarse grass, close to the Cornish sea, trying to catch thoughts; and I was trying very hard when I saw them coming hand in hand.

She was dressed in blue linen, and a little cloud of honey-coloured hair; her small face had serious eyes the colour of the chicory flowers she was holding up to sniff at—­a clean sober little maid, with a very touching upward look of trust.  Her companion was a strong, active boy of perhaps fourteen, and he, too, was serious—­his deep-set, blacklashed eyes looked down at her with a queer protective wonder; the while he explained in a soft voice broken up between two ages, that exact process which bees adopt to draw honey out of flowers.  Once or twice this hoarse but charming voice became quite fervent, when she had evidently failed to follow; it was as if he would have been impatient, only he knew he must not, because she was a lady and younger than himself, and he loved her.

They sat down just below my nook, and began to count the petals of a chicory flower, and slowly she nestled in to him, and he put his arm round her.  Never did I see such sedate, sweet lovering, so trusting on her part, so guardianlike on his.  They were like, in miniature—–­though more dewy,—­those sober couples who have long lived together, yet whom one still catches looking at each other with confidential tenderness, and in whom, one feels, passion is atrophied from never having been in use.

Long I sat watching them in their cool communion, half-embraced, talking a little, smiling a little, never once kissing.  They did not seem shy of that; it was rather as if they were too much each other’s to think of such a thing.  And then her head slid lower and lower down his shoulder, and sleep buttoned the lids over those chicory-blue eyes.  How careful he was, then, not to wake her, though I could see his arm was getting stiff!  He still sat, good as gold, holding her, till it began quite to hurt me to see his shoulder thus in chancery.  But presently I saw him draw his arm away ever so carefully, lay her head down on the grass, and lean forward to stare at something.  Straight in front of them was a magpie, balancing itself on a stripped twig of thorn-tree.  The agitating bird, painted of night and day, was making a queer noise and flirting one wing, as if trying to attract attention.  Rising from the twig, it circled, vivid and stealthy, twice round the tree, and flew to another a dozen paces off.  The boy rose; he looked at his little mate, looked at the bird, and began quietly to move toward it; but uttering again its queer call, the bird glided on to a third thorn-tree.  The boy hesitated then—­but once more the bird flew on, and suddenly dipped over the hill.  I saw the boy break into a run; and getting up quickly, I ran too.