Some minutes passed in the pleasing examination of the volume; and Marian was still turning the leaves with unmixed pleasure—­pleasure in the gift, and pleasure in the giver—­when Thurston, even before the appointed time, suddenly rejoined her.

“So absorbed in Spenser that you did not even hear or see me!” said the young man, half reproachfully.

“I was indeed far gone in Fairy Land!  Oh, I thank you so much for your beautiful present!  It is indeed a treasure.  I shall prize it greatly,” said Marian, in unfeigned delight.

“Do you know that Fairy Land is not obsolete, dearest Marian?” he said, fixing his eyes upon her charming face with an ardor and earnestness that caused hers to sink.

“Come,” she said, in a low voice, and rising from the rock; “let us leave this place and go forward.”

They walked on, speaking softly of many things—­of the vision of Spenser, of the beautiful autumnal weather, of anything except the one interest that now occupied both hearts.  The fear of startling her bashful trust, and banishing those bewitching glances that sometimes lightened on his face, made him cautious, and restrained his eagerness; while excessive consciousness kept her cheeks dyed with blushes, and her nerves vibrating sweet, wild music, like the strings of some aeolian harp when swept by the swift south wind.

He determined, during the walk, to plead his love, and ascertain his fate.  Ay! but how approach the subject when, at every ardent glance or tone, her face, her heart, shrank and closed up, like the leaves of the sensitive plant.

So they rambled on, discovering new beauties in nature; now it would be merely an oak leaf of rare richness of coloring; now some tiny insect with finished elegance of form; now a piece of the dried branch of a tree that Thurston picked up, to bid her note the delicately blending shades in its gray hue, or the curves and lines of grace in its twisted form—­the beauty of its slow return to dust; and now perhaps it would be the mingled colors in the heaps of dried leaves drifted at the foot of some great tree.

And then from the minute loveliness of nature’s sweet, small things, their eyes would wander to the great glory of the autumnal sky, or the variegated array of the gorgeous forest.

Thurston knew a beautiful glade, not far distant, to the left of their path, from which there was a very fine view that he wished to show his companion.  And he led Marian thither by a little moss-bordered, descending path.

It was a natural opening in the forest, from which, down a still, descending vista, between the trees, could be seen the distant bay, and the open country near it, all glowing under a refulgent sky, and hazy with the golden mist of Indian Summer.  Before them the upper branches of the nearest trees formed a natural arch above the picture.

Marian stood and gazed upon the wondrous beauty of the scene with soft, steady eyes, with lips breathlessly severed, in perfect silence and growing emotion.