han sought her out.

One day, as he was coming home from a ramble, Will found Marjory in the
garden picking flowers, and as he came up with her, slackened his pace
and continued walking by her side.

'You like flowers?' he said.

'Indeed I love them dearly,' she replied. 'Do you?'

'Why, no,' said he, 'not so much. They are a very small affair, when all
is done. I can fancy people caring for them greatly, but not doing as
you are just now.'

'How?' she asked, pausing and looking up at him.

'Plucking them,' said he. 'They are a deal better off where they are,
and look a deal prettier, if you go to that.'

'I wish to have them for my own,' she answered, 'to carry them near my
heart, and keep them in my room. They tempt me when they grow here; they
seem to say, "Come and do something with us;" but once I have cut them
and put them by, the charm is laid, and I can look at them with quite an
easy heart.'

'You wish to possess them,' replied Will, 'in order to think no more
about them. It's a bit like killing the goose with the golden eggs. It's
a bit like what I wished to do when I was a boy. Because I had a fancy
for looking out over the plain, I wished to go down there--where I
couldn't look out over it any longer. Was not that fine reasoning? Dear,
dear, if they only thought of it, all the world would do like me; and you
would let your flowers alone, just as I stay up here in the mountains.'
Suddenly he broke off sharp. 'By the Lord!' he cried. And when she
asked him what was wrong, he turned the question off and walked away into
the house with rather a humorous expression of face.

He was silent at table; and after the night hid fallen and the stars had
come out overhead, he walked up and down for hours in the courtyard and
garden with an uneven pace. There was still a light in the window of
Marjory's room: one little oblong patch of orange in a world of dark blue
hills and silver starlight. Will's mind ran a great deal on the window;
but his thoughts were not very lover-like. 'There she is in her room,'
he thought, 'and there are the stars overhead:--a blessing upon both!'
Both were good influences in his life; both soothed and braced him in his
profound contentment with the world. And what more should he desire with
either? The fat young man and his councils were so present to his mind,
that he threw back his head, and, putting his hands before his mouth,
shouted aloud to the populous heaven