

y. 



' den, and not disturb my mountain solitudes 

 with their ignorant and vulgar raptures. 

 The people who really know me and love 

 me seek me oftener at other seasons, when 

 I am more at leisure, and can bid them 

 to a more intimate companionship. They 

 come to understand my finer moods and 

 deeper secrets of beauty ; the elusive loveli- 

 ness which I leave behind me to lure on my 

 true friends through the late autumn, they 

 find and follow with the eye and heart of 

 love ; the rare and splendid aspects in which 

 I often discover my presence in midwinter 

 they enjoy all the more because I have with- 

 drawn myself from the gaze of the crowd ; 

 and the first faint touches of colour and 

 soft breathings of life, which announce 

 my return in the early spring, they greet 

 with the deep joy of true lovers. Those 

 only who discern the beauty of branches 

 from which I have stripped the leaves to 

 uncover their exquisite outline and sym- 

 metry, who can look over bare fields and 

 into the faded copse and find there the 

 elusive beauty which hides in soft tones 

 14 





I > 7- V ' 





