"
I was amazed, and wondered why it was--this strange boy had been much in
society, and why should I, an unsophisticated, homely girl, bring such a
shower of feeling on myself.
"Could it be real and would it last?"
He comprehended my thought again and replied:
"You are not homely; I see your soul in your eyes; you are younger than
I am; I have never seen your equal, and I know years will tell you I am
only true to my heart, and we will work together--ah! we will work for
something good, we will not be all for ourselves, _ma belle_," and on my
forehead he left a kiss that burned with the great thoughts of his
heart.
I could only feel that I was in the presence of a wonderful power, and
at that moment he seemed a divinity. The moon came over the hill, and
with his arm in mine we turned our steps homeward, and Clara met us
half-way, and putting her hand fondly in Louis' said:
"My boy is out under the moon. I feared he was lost."
"My little mother!" and he gathered her under his wing, as it seemed,
and we were soon at the gate of home. Louis and his mother passed in at
the side door. As they did so, I fell back a step or two, turned my
steps toward the old apple tree, and there, sitting against its old
trunk, I talked aloud and cried and said:
"Have I done wrong, or is it right?"
Oh! what strange thoughts came over me as I sat growing more and more
convinced that Louis' talk to me was a boyish rhapsody, and yet I knew
then, as I had before known, that my own heart was touched by his
presence.
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