There was a beautiful softness and harmony of color, a repose that one
never sees in a spring landscape. The tide was in, the sun was almost
down, and a great, cloudless, infinite sky arched itself from horizon
to horizon. It had sent all its brilliance to shine backward from the
sun,--the glowing sphere from which a single dazzling ray came across
the fields and the water to the boat. In a moment more it was gone,
and a shadow quickly fell like that of a tropical twilight; but the
west grew golden, and one light cloud, like a floating red feather,
faded away upward into the sky. A later bright glow touched some high
hills in the east, then they grew purple and gray, and so the evening
came that way slowly, and the ripple of the water plashed and sobbed
against the boat's side; and presently in the midst of the river's
inland bay, after a few last eager strokes, the young man drew in his
oars, letting them drop with a noise which startled Nan, who had
happened to be looking over her shoulder at the shore.
She knew well enough that he meant to put a grave question to her now,
and her heart beat faster and she twisted the tiller cords around her
hands unconsciously.
"I think I could break any bonds you might use to keep yourself away
from me," he said hurriedly, as he watched her. "I am not fit for you,
only that I love you. Somebody told me you meant to go away, and I
could not wait any longer before I asked you if you would give
yourself to me.
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