But it was not
merely her beauty and her tenderness that had absorbed my attention.
I had been noticing how intensely she seemed to enjoy the delights of
that summer afternoon. As we passed along that road, where sea-scents
and land-scents were mingled, she would stop whenever the sunshine
fell full upon her face; her eyes would sparkle and widen with
pleasure, and a half-smile would play about her lips, as if some one
had kissed her. Every now and then she would stop to listen to the
birds, putting up her finger, and with a look of childish wisdom say,
'Do you know what that is? That's a blackbird--that's a
thrush--that's a goldfinch. Which eggs do you like best--a
goldfinch's or a bullfinch's? _I_ know which _I_ like best.'
III
While we were walking along the road a sound fell upon my ears which
in my hale days never produced any very unpleasant sensations, but
which did now. I mean the cackling of the field people of both sexes
returning from their day's work. These people knew me well, and they
liked me, and I am sure they had no idea that when they ran past me
on the road their looks and nods gave me no pleasure, but pain; and I
always tried to avoid them.
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