who has suffered and been patient; who has loved
much and will love on to the end; who, from the depths of a noble,
selfless nature, looks out upon the world with mild eyes of charity; a
woman, yet a girl in years, whom one termed his pearl among women.

Just now, standing under the elms, with her straight white folds and
uncovered hair, for her sun-bonnet lay on the turf beside her, her
wistful eyes looking far away seaward, one could have compared her to
a Norman or a Druidical priestess under the shadow of the sacred oak;
there is at once something so benignant and strong, so full of pathos,
in her face and form.

Low swaying of branches, then the pattering of red and yellow rain
round the rough-hewn bench, the brown baby awakes and stretches out
its arms with a lusty cry--a suggestive human sound that effectually
breaks up the stillness; for at the same instant an urchin whittling
wood in the hedge scrambles out in haste, and a buxom-looking woman
steps from the porch of an ivy-covered lodge, wringing the soap-suds
from her white wrinkled hands.

Trifles mar tranquillity.

For a moment silence is invaded, and the dissonant sounds gather
strength; for once infant tears fail to be dried by mother smiles,
and, as if in answer to the shrill cries, flocks of snow-white geese
waddle solemnly across the grass; the boy leaves off whittling wood
and chases the yellow-bills; through the leafy avenue comes the loaded
corn-wain, the jocund wagoner with scarlet poppies in his hat, blue
corn-flowers and pink convolvuli trailing from the horses' ears; over
the fields sound the distant pealing of bells.

The girl wakes up from her musing fit with a deep sigh, and her face
becomes suddenly very pale; then she moves slowly across the road
toward a path winding through the bare harvest fields, where the
gleaners are busily at work. From under the tamarisk hedge comes the
shadow of a woman; as the white gown disappears and the lodge-keeper
carries off her wailing child, the shadow becomes substance and grows
erect into the figure of a girl.

Of a girl in shabby black, foot-sore and weary, who drags herself with
hesitating steps to the spot where the other woman's feet have rested,
and there she stoops and hurriedly gathers a few blades of grass and
presses them to her lips.

Silence once more over the landscape: the glitter of sunshine round
the empty bench; the whirling of insects in the ambient air; under the
shadowy elms a