MY LADY Or THE FIELD Or BLHOD
" I cannot conceive," she said, " how any one can be so ab
sorbed. It is beyond me."
" Have yOu never loved anything so fondly that you felt you
would sacrifice anything, even life itself, for it ? " he asked.
" Love! " said the maiden. " Yes, I have read of it in books—
of how it makes fools of the wisest men. But I,—l have never
known it."
Carl opened his eyes in astonishment. From that instant this
girl held a strange
. fascination, a new interest for him. He had
long scouted the idea that any one could live to mature age with
out experiencing the thrills of the grand passion. At last he was•
face to face with a living example.
" I cannot understand it," he said, slowly.
Then, unconsciously using her own words, " It is beyond me."
While he was speaking she had been silently turning over his,
drawings. At length she came to one which he had signed.
" Carl Delayle," she mused. " That is your name, no doubt."
" Yes," he assented. " Carl Delayle, artist at heart, idler by
nature, dreamer through all."
" And yet you are happy and contented," said she.
" One who is ambitious is never contented," said Carl.
" Then I am glad that I am not ambitious, if it destroys peace
of mind," returned the girl.
Carl looked at her sharply once more.
" I cannot understand you," he declared.
As he spoke, he saw her draw her light mantle more closely
about her shoulders. And then he noticed that the sun had sunk
behind the hills, and that the shadows of early eventide were
falling.
" Night is gathering," he said, " and I must take myself off at
once or I shall never be able to find my way back to the hostelry.
"To the hostelry," she echoed. " Why, it is six miles away."'
"So far? " said Carl. " I did not think I had wandered so.
widely."
" It is clearly impossible for you to reach it in the darkness.
You must accept the hospitality of a stranger, and come with me.
We do not often entertain, for few ever pass through the forest.
But such as we have belongs to every belated passerby."
And thris speaking, she gathered her light dress about her and.