together there much ... it's too near the big house."

"What shall we do, then?"

"There's the fields and the woods ... miles of them ... the whole
outside world for us."

"I don't see why _we_ shouldn't go strolling together ... the rest are
all abroad somewhere, too ... but we must be careful, Johnnie, very
careful."

"Careful--why?"

"Because of Mubby."

"But he doesn't love you any more?"

"I'm not so sure about that ... I'm not so sure about anything."

* * * * *

I never saw the world so beautiful as on that day. I was translated to
the veritable garden of Eden. The community had been named rightly. I
was Adam and Hildreth was my Eve.

And so it went on for two blissful weeks....

If the Voice of God had met us, going abroad beneath the trees, I would
not have been surprised.

Hildreth took her volume of Blake with her on our rambles ... and we
revelled in his "Songs of Experience" as well as "Songs of Innocence";
and we were moved deeply by the huge, cloudy grandeur of his prophetic
books....

Why could it not go on forever thus? eternal summer, everlasting love in
its first rosy flush?...

Hildreth was very wise and very patient with one who was as yet a mere
acolyte in love's ways and uses ... she taught me many things, and I
adored her for it--as little by little, day by day, she brought me to
the full stature of my manhood....

* * * * *

Of course the two other women of the household immediately sensed what
was happening. But Penton remained pathetically blind....

What an incredible man! A mole would have gotten a glimmer of the
gradually developing change.

With bravado I acted my part of the triangular drama ... but Hildreth
carried off her part with an easiness, a femininely delicate boldness,
that compelled my utmost admiration ... she even threw suspicious Ruth
and Darrie off the scent--at times.

* * * * *

The night of the performance of _A Midsummer Night's Dream_ I shall
never forget ... Hildreth as Titania in her green tights ... I sat in
the back (she would not allow me in the front because it might fluster
her, she pleaded) and enjoyed a sense of blissful ownership in her, as
she glided about, through the Shakespearean scenes ...--such a sense of
ownership that it ran through my veins with a full feeling, possessed my
entire body....

Who was this little, alien man, Penton Ba