"A lark arm in arm with a thrush, Came sauntering up to the place; The nightingale felt herself blush, Though feathers hid her face.

"She knew they had heard her song, She felt them snicker and sneer.

She thought this life was too long, And wished she could skip a year.

"'O, nightingale!' cooed a dove, O, nightingale, what's the use; You bird of beauty and love, Why behave like a goose?

"'Don't skulk away from our sight, Like a common, contemptible fowl; You bird of joy and delight, Why behave like an owl?

"'Only think of all you have done; Only think of all you can do; A false note is really fun From such a bird as you.

"'Lift up your proud little crest: Open your musical beak; Other birds have to do their best, You need only to speak.'

"The nightingale shyly took Her head from under her wing, And giving the dove a look, Straightway began to sing.

"There was never a bird could pa.s.s; The night was divinely calm; And the people stood on the gra.s.s, To hear that wonderful psalm!

"The nightingale did not care, She only sang to the skies; Her song ascended there, And there she fixed her eyes.

"The people that stood below She knew but little about; And this story's a moral, I know, If you'll try to find it out."

"How did you know that I need that?" she asked, taking it from his hand.

"Who wrote it?"

"I did."

"Don't you know?"

"No. I don't know. I copied it for you."

"Thank you. I thank you very much. You could not have brought me any thing better."

"I brought you a piece of news, too."

"As good as the poem?"

"Nan Gerard thinks so. She is to be married and to live at Old Place; our castle in the air."

"Old Place isn't my castle in the air. Who told you?"

"A woman's question. I never told a woman a secret yet that she did not reply, 'Who told you?' Mary Sherwood told me, of course. Do you congratulate Naughty Nan?"

"Must I?"

"It's queer that I do not know that man. I have missed an introduction a thousand times. Do you congratulate her?"

"I am supposed to congratulate _him_. He is very lovable."

"I thought that only women were that."

"That's an admission," laughed Tessa, "you cross old bachelor."

"You learned that from Dine."

"No, I learned it from you."

Tessa talked rapidly and lightly, perhaps, because she did not feel like talking at all.

Would he marry Nan Gerard? Why could she not be glad for Nan Gerard? Why must she be just a little sorry for herself? Why must it make a difference to her? Why must the weight of the flowers be too heavy for her hand, and why must she give them that toss over a fence across a field?

"Your pretty flowers," expostulated Mr. Hammerton.

"I do not care for them; they were withering."

"I have a thought; I wonder why it should come to me; I am wondering if you and I walk together here a year from to-day what we shall be talking about. My prophetic soul reveals to me that a year makes a difference sometimes."

"I remember a year ago to-day," she answered. "A year _has_ made a difference."

"Not to you or me?"

"To Nan Gerard?" she answered seriously.

"But that does not affect us."

Did it not? A year ago to-day Ralph Towne had brought her some English violets, and she had pressed them and thrown a thought about him and about them into a poem. To-day had he taken violets to Nan Gerard?

"Lady Blue; you are absent-minded."

"Am I? I was only labelling and pigeon-holing a thought; it is to be laid away to moulder with the dust of ages."

"A thought that can not be spoken?"

"A thought that it was folly to think, and that would be worse than folly to speak."

If he replied she did not hear; they sauntered on, she keeping the path and he walking on the gra.s.s.

A carriage pa.s.sed, driving slowly. The two ladies within watched the pedestrians,-a fair-faced girl with thoughtful eyes, and a tall man with an intellectual face,-as if they were a part of the landscape of the spring.

"'In the spring a young man's fancy-'"

laughingly quoted one of them.

"Will she accept or refuse him?" asked the other.

"If she do either it will be once and forever," was the reply seriously given. "Did you notice her mouth? She has been very much troubled, but she can be made very glad."

After the carriage had pa.s.sed, Mr. Hammerton spoke, "I am glad we amused those people; they failed to decide whether or not we are lovers."

"They have very little penetration, then," said Tessa. "I am too languid and you are too unconscious."