"What--what then?"
"Then you may ask me."
The response of the overjoyed lover was but one or two passionate words,
and her sufficient reply, as they halted among their fellows, was to
look across the valley with her meditative smile. Isabel took note, but
kindly gave a long sigh of admiration, and with an exalted sweep of the
hand drew the gaze of the five to the beauties of the scene below. The
day was near its end. The long shadow of the great cliff behind Bylow
Hill hung over the roofs of the town and over the hither meadows. The
sun's rays were laying their last touches upon the winding river, and
upon the grainfields that extended from its farther shore. In the upper
blue rested a few peaceful clouds, changing from silver to pink, from
pink to pearly gray, and on the skyline crouched in a purpling haze the
round-backed mountains of another county.
To Mrs. Morris and the General the sight, from the old elm-tree seat,
was even fairer than to the youthful group whose forms stood out against
the sky, the floral colors of the girls' draperies heightened by the
western light. For a while the two sitters gave the perfect scene the
tribute of a perfect silence, and then the General asked, as he
cautiously straightened his impaired frame, "Has not Isabel been making
some--eh--news for herself--and us?"
The lady's lips parted for their peculiar laugh of embarrassment, but
the questioner's smile was so serious that she forced her sweetest
gravity.
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