alone with a hooked needle and a ball of silk, the
"fine " work with which she was always provided
this mystifying mood had simply been precipi
tated, no doubt, by their prolonged halt, with which
the girl hadn't really been in sympathy. One had
only to admit that her complaint was in fact but the
excess of the joy of life, and everything did then
fit. She couldn't stop for the joy, but she could
go on for it, and with the sense of going on she
floated again, was restored to her great spaces.
There was no evasion of any truth so at least
Susan Shepherd hoped in one's sitting there while
the twilight deepened and feeling still more finely
that the position of this young lady was magnifi
cent. The evening at that height had naturally
turned to cold, and the travellers had bespoken a
fire with their meal; the great Alpine road asserted
its brave presence through the small panes of the
low, clean windows, with incidents at the inn-door,
the yellow diligence, the great waggons, the hurry
ing, hooded, private conveyances, reminders, for
our fanciful friend, of old stories, old pictures, his
toric flights, escapes, pursuits, things that had hap
pened, things indeed that by a sort of strange con-
gruity helped her to read the meanings of the
greatest interest into the relation in which she was
now so deeply involved. It was natural that this
record of the magnificence of her companion's po
sition should strike her as, after all, the best mean
ing she could extract; for she herself was seated in

[[148]]

p147 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p148w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p149

v?