THE WOOD WALK
she indicated with her finger— "down to the front door."
Carron saw that the æsthetic sense of this young woman had been neglected—he doubted if she knew she had one—and he observed that her body rejoiced in activity. He was altogether entertained and delighted. "You would love to slide now, wouldn't you?" he inquired.
She glanced sidelong at the floor, but walked demurely. She resisted his invitation, but the invitation of the sky and trees, seen through the open door, she evidently found more potent. Whether she ran or not he wasn't sure, but her getting over the threshold and half-way down the steps was like nothing so much as the flash of a bird. She looked around her, and back at him, and her animation seemed to have taken a leap. "Which way shall we go?" she inquired.
"Oh, any way! You take me!" Her spirits had caught him. His irritation, his chafings were withdrawn.
"Then I will take you to the spring. It is about the only thing there is to see that we will have time for."
If he had expected her to race him through the shadows he was to be disappointed. For after that one instant of wildness that had touched her as she
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