And whatever else she may have been thinking of, she was
almost certainly conscious that vinegared lettuce-leaf in a sandwich was
a vast improvement.
"Do you come here often?" he said, at length.
"It is my favorite nook," she made answer.
"I confess that I feel horribly like an interloper," he remarked,
hesitatingly. "I feel as if I--as if I had no right to be here--as if I
were invading a sacred retreat--" and there he stopped; for he would
have liked to add, "the sacred retreat of a sylvan goddess or a nymph of
the stream," but that he somehow felt that fantastic imagery of that
kind would hardly be appropriate.
"You had more need of the shelter than I," said this extremely
matter-of-fact young person, "for you had no waterproof, and I had.
Come, if you have finished, shall we go up to the Top Pool?--I want you
to have a cast over that, for it is an experience; and, though the sun
is out, it won't much matter; there is always such a boiling and surging
in that caldron."
Old Robert, whose head was just visible above the bracken, was thereupon
called to pack up the remains of the simple feast, and then they set
forth again--skirting, but not troubling the Geinig Pool, for the sun
was too strong.
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