covered with a red velvet glove,
and on the wrist a little brown falcon, very fluffy and bedraggled,
which she smoothed and fondled as she walked. As she came out into the
sunshine, Alleyne noticed that her light gown, slashed with pink, was
all stained with earth and with moss upon one side from shoulder to hem.
He stood in the shadow of an oak staring at her with parted lips, for
this woman seemed to him to be the most beautiful and graceful creature
that mind could conceive of. Such had he imagined the angels, and such
he had tried to paint them in the Beaulieu missals; but here there was
something human, were it only in the battered hawk and discolored dress,
which sent a tingle and thrill through his nerves such as no dream of
radiant and stainless spirit had ever yet been able to conjure up. Good,
quiet, uncomplaining mother Nature, long slighted and miscalled, still
bides her time and draws to her bosom the most errant of her children.

The two walked swiftly across the meadow to the narrow bridge, he in
front and she a pace or two behind. There they paused, and stood for
a few minutes face to face talking earnestly. Alleyne had read and
had heard of love and of lovers. Such were these, doubtless--this
golden-bearded man and the fair damsel with the cold, proud face. Why
else should they wander together in the woods, or be so lost in talk by
rustic streams? And yet as he watched, uncertain whether to advance from
the cover or to choose some other path to the house, he soon came
to doubt the truth of this first conjecture. The man stood, tall and
square, blocking the entrance to the bridge, and throwing out his hands
as he spoke in a wild eager fashion, while the deep tones of his stormy
voice rose at times into accents of menace and of anger. She stood
fearlessly in front of him, still stroking her bird; but twice she threw
a swift questioning glance over her shoulder, as one who is in search
of aid. So moved was the young clerk by these mute appeals, that he came
forth from the trees and crossed the meadow, uncertain what to do, and
yet loth to hold back from one who might need his aid. So intent were
they upon each other that neither took note of his approach; until, when
he was close upon them, the man threw his arm roughly round the damsel's
waist and drew her towards him, she straining her lithe, supple figure
away and striking fiercely at him, while the hooded hawk screamed with
ruffled wings and pecked bli