第20章

Two or three times he was obliged to make the cord fast and return to help her, for she was not an 'expert'; her arms seemed soft, and she was inclined to straddle instead of trusting to one foot.But at last they were settled, streaked indeed with moss, on the top branch but two.They rested there, silent, listening to the rooks soothing an outraged dignity.Save for this slowly subsiding demonstration it was marvellously peaceful and remote up there, half-way to a blue sky thinly veiled from them by the crinkled brown-green leaves.The peculiar dry mossy smell of an oak-tree was disturbed into the air by the least motion of their feet or hands against the bark.They could hardly see the ground, and all around, other gnarled trees barred off any view.

He said:

"If we stay up here till it's dark we might see owls.""Oh, no! Owls are horrible!"

"What! They're LOVELY--especially the white ones.""I can't stand their eyes, and they squeak so when they're hunting.""Oh! but that's so jolly, and their eyes are beautiful.""They're always catching mice and little chickens; all sorts of little things.""But they don't mean to; they only want them to eat.Don't you think things are jolliest at night?"She slipped her arm in his.

"No; I don't like the dark."

"Why not? It's splendid--when things get mysterious." He dwelt lovingly on that word.

"I don't like mysterious things.They frighten you.""Oh, Sylvia!"

"No, I like early morning--especially in spring, when it's beginning to get leafy.""Well, of course."

She was leaning against him, for safety, just a little; and stretching out his arm, he took good hold of the branch to make a back for her.There was a silence.Then he said:

"If you could only have one tree, which would you have?""Not oaks.Limes--no--birches.Which would you?"He pondered.There were so many trees that were perfect.Birches and limes, of course; but beeches and cypresses, and yews, and cedars, and holm-oaks--almost, and plane-trees; then he said suddenly:

"Pines; I mean the big ones with reddish stems and branches pretty high up.""Why?"

Again he pondered.It was very important to explain exactly why;his feelings about everything were concerned in this.And while he mused she gazed at him, as if surprised to see anyone think so deeply.At last he said:

"Because they're independent and dignified and never quite cold, and their branches seem to brood, but chiefly because the ones Imean are generally out of the common where you find them.You know--just one or two, strong and dark, standing out against the sky.""They're TOO dark."

It occurred to him suddenly that he had forgotten larches.They, of course, could be heavenly, when you lay under them and looked up at the sky, as he had that afternoon out there.Then he heard her say:

"If I could only have one flower, I should have lilies of the valley, the small ones that grow wild and smell so jolly."He had a swift vision of another flower, dark--very different, and was silent.

"What would you have, Mark?" Her voice sounded a little hurt.

"You ARE thinking of one, aren't you?"

He said honestly:

"Yes, I am."

"Which?"

"It's dark, too; you wouldn't care for it a bit.""How d'you know?"

"A clove carnation."

"But I do like it--only--not very much."

He nodded solemnly.