d
more glowing still, as the eye traced them into the distance--all
furnished to fancy some new means of shadowing forth bright hopes,
and wishes, and purposes. Each was an enthusiastic admirer of nature;
each had often and often stood, and pondered and gazed, and admired
scenes of similar loveliness; each, too, had felt deep and ardent
affection for the other in other places; and each had believed that
nothing could exceed the joy that they experienced in their
occasional solitary interviews; but neither had ever before known the
same sensations of delight in the beautiful aspect of unrivalled
nature, neither had tasted the joy which two hearts that love each
other can feel in pouring forth their thoughts together in scenes
that both are worthy to admire.
Nature had acquired tenfold charms to their eyes; and the secret of
it was, that the spirit of love within their hearts pervaded and
brightened it all. Love itself seemed to have gained an intensity and
brightness in those scenes that it had never known before, because
the great spirit of nature, the inspiring, the expanding genius of
the scene, answered the spirit within their hearts, and seemed to
witness and applaud their affection.
Oh, how happily the hours went by in those sweet words and caresses,
innocent but dear! oh, how glad, how unlike the world's joys in
general, were the feelings in each of those young hearts, while they
wandered on alone, with none but love and nature for their companions
on the way! On that first day, at least to Laura, the feeling was
altogether overpowering: she might have had a faint and misty dream
that such things could exist, but nothing more; but now that she felt
them, they seemed to absorb every other sensation for the time, to
make her heart beat as it had never beat before, to cast her thoughts
into strange but bright confusion, so that when she returned with
Wilton, and found that her father had come down, she ran to her own
room, to pause for a few moments, and to collect her ideas into some
sort of order once more.
Day after day, during Wilton's stay, the same bright round of happy
hours succeeded. During the whole of the first part of his sojourn,
the Duke was unable to go out, and Wilton and Lady Laura were left
very much alone. Wilton felt no hesitation in regard to his conduct.
He could not believe, he scarcely even feared, that the Duke was
blind to the mutual love which existed between Laura and himself; and
he only waited till his own fate was clear