Summary

The narrator tells of a beautiful river at the base of a hill. There, he tells the reader about a pale young woman who is doing something surprising: breaking rings in half, tearing up letters, and throwing the detritus into the river. She wears a straw hat to partially conceal the fact that she is less young and beautiful than she once was, though the narrator mentions that she is still possessed of "some beauty" (14). She is crying, often wiping her eyes with a handkerchief, and at other times crying out in anger as she throws a variety of lover's tokens into the river.

An aged man is grazing his cattle nearby. He hears this noise and thinks that, because of his age, he has a right to know what is wrong. He sits beside her and eventually asks the source of her woe...