I looked up to the
deep, cloudless sky, around at the wide stretch of green in the golden
sunlight, then almost unconsciously back once more to the edge of the
woods, where the spread rugs made a tiny home fit for the heart of
summertide. Nor did I guess, even then, which was the dominant note of
this wonderful chord that my life had unconsciously struck. I knew only
that the world was far more beautiful than I had ever dreamed, and still
singing under my breath the little cadence that seemed to fit the day, I
wandered slowly back, leaving a path crushed between the tall, sun-faded
grasses as I went.
Mr. Longworth laid down his work as I approached. A strange, absurd
shyness possessed me, after the weeks of strengthening friendship and
simple good-fellowship, but I held out the great bunch of daisies
playfully to him, as I seated myself on the pile of rugs. He reached
his hand for them eagerly, and buried his face in their sunny depths.
His eyes shone feverishly with his stress of work, and his thin cheeks
were flushed. "You look tired," I said. "You should not write so long."
Thus far, though we had often jested about it, we had never read each
other portions of our work.
"When I get mine half done," I had said, when he begged me to read him a
chapter.
"When I can manage to make a chapter run smoothly to its end," he had
replied laughing, in turn, but now to-day, urged by some necessity for
an absorbing topic into which I could plunge, losing my restlessness, I
insisted that he should read fragments, at least, to me.
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