She had gone on her usual rambles. Mrs. Cooper pointed out the
course which she had taken, and the young man set off in pursuit.
The walks of the maiden were of course well known to a lover so
devoted. He had sought and followed her a thousand times, and the
general direction which she had gone, once known, his progress was
as direct as his discoveries were certain. The heart of the youth,
dilated with better hopes as he felt himself traversing the old
familiar paths. It seemed to him that the fates could scarcely be
adverse in a region which had always been so friendly. Often had
he escorted her along this very route, when their spirits better
harmonized--when, more of the girl struggling into womanhood, the
mind of Margaret Cooper, ignorant of its own resources and unconscious
of its maturer desires, was more gentle, and could rejoice in that
companionship for which she now betrayed so little desire. The
sheltered paths and well-known trees, even the little clumps
of shrubbery that filled up the intervals, were too pleasant and
familiar to his eye not to seem favorable to his progress, and with
a hope that had no foundation, save in the warm and descriptive
colors of a young heart's fancy, William Hinkley pursued the route
which led him to one of the most lovely and love-haunted glades in
all Kentucky.
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