He used his oars little, satisfied to go with the tide and be taken
back by it. It was his habit to indulge himself in that solemn
passivity which easily comes with the lengthening shadows and mellow
light, when thinking and desiring melt together imperceptibly, and what
in other hours may have seemed argument takes the quality of passionate
vision. By the time he had come back again with the tide past Richmond
Bridge the sun was near setting: and the approach of his favorite
hour--with its deepening stillness and darkening masses of tree and
building between the double glow of the sky and the river--disposed him
to linger as if they had been an unfinished strain of music. He looked
out for a perfectly solitary spot where he could lodge his boat against
the bank, and, throwing himself on his back with his head propped on
the cushions, could watch out the light of sunset and the opening of
that bead-roll which some oriental poet describes as God's call to the
little stars, who each answer, "Here am I." He chose a spot in the bend
of the river just opposite Kew Gardens, where he had a great breadth of
water before him reflecting the glory of the sky, while he himself was
in shadow. He lay with his hands behind his head, propped on a level
with the boat's edge, so that he could see all round him, but could not
be seen by any one at a few yards' distance; and for a long while he
never turned his eyes from the view right in front of him. He was
forgetting everything else in a half-speculative, half-involuntary
identification of himself with the objects he was looking at, thinking
how far it might be possible habitually to shift his centre till his
own personality would be no less outside him than the landscape--when
the sense of something moving on the bank opposite him where it was
bordered by a line of willow bushes, made him turn his glance
thitherward. In the first moment he had a darting presentiment about
the moving figure; and now he could see the small face with the strange
dying sunlight upon it. He feared to frighten her by a sudden movement,
and watched her with motionless attention. She looked round, but seemed
only to gather security from the apparent solitude, hid her hat among
the willows, and immediately took off her woolen cloak. Presently she
seated herself and deliberately dipped the cloak in the water, holding
it there a little while, then taking it out with effort, rising from
her seat as she did so. By th