Well, he
listened to me in fixed silence. When I had finished he asked, 'Is that
all?' I said, 'Yes,' and he turned his back upon me. 'Your future is
already provided for, Douglas,' he said. 'I will speak to you of it
to-morrow.' Then he walked away. That is all the warning I had."
"And what about Joan?"
His face flushed hotly.
"No word from him, nor any hint of such a thing has ever made me think
of Joan in such a connection. I should have been less surprised if the
ceiling had fallen in upon us."
She looked at him and nodded gravely.
"Well," she said, "our oracle has spoken. What are you going to do?"
"I am going to ask for your advice first," he said.
"Then you must tell me just how you feel," she said.
He drew a long breath.
"There are so many things," he said, speaking softly and half to
himself. "Last week, Cicely, I took a compass and a stick and I walked
across the hills to Rydal Mount, where Wordsworth lived. When I came
back I think that I was quite content to spend all my days here. It is
such a beautiful world. Some day when you have lived here longer, you
will know what I mean--the bondage will fall upon you, too. The
mountains with their tops hidden in soft blue mist, the winds blowing
across the waste places, the wild flowers springing up in unexpected
corners, the little streams tearing down the hillside to flow smoothly
like a belt of beautiful ribbon through the pasture land below.
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