148 THE SMUGGLER. 



in tho air. Now she borrowed a comparison for something 

 sensible to the eye from the sweet music that charms the ear; 

 now she found out links of association between the singing of 

 the birds and some of the fine paintings that she had seen or 

 heard of; now combined a bright scene, or a peculiar moment 

 of happiness, with the sweet odours of the flowers or the 

 murmur of the stream. With everything in nature and art 

 she sported, apparently unconscious ; and often, too, in speak- 

 ing of the emotions of the heart or the thoughts of the mind, 

 she would, with a bright flash of imagination, cast lights upon 

 those dark and hidden things from objects in the external 

 world, or from the common events of life. 



Eagerly Digby led her on, pleased, excited, entertained him- 

 self; but in so doing he produced an effect which he had not cal- 

 culated upon. He made a change in her feelings towards 

 himself. She had thought him a very agreeable man from 

 the first ; she had seen that he was a gentleman by habit, and 

 divined that he was so by nature; but now she began to 

 think that he was a very high-toned and noble-minded man, 

 that he was one worthy of high station and of all happiness, 

 she did not say of affection, nor let the image of love pass 

 distinctly before her eyes. There might be a rosy cloud in the 

 far sky wherein the god was veiled ; but she did not see him, 

 or was it that she would not ? Perhaps it was so ; for wo- 

 man's heart is often as perverse and blind, in these matters, 

 as man's. But one thing is clear, no two people can thus 

 pour forth the streams of congenial thought and feeling, to 

 flow on mingling together in sweet communion, for any great 

 length of time, without a change of their sensations towards 

 each other; and, unless the breast be well guarded by passion 

 for another, it is not alone that mind with mind is blended, 

 but heart with heart. 



Though the distance was considerable, that is to say, some 

 three or four miles, and they made it more than twice as long 

 by turning up towards the hills, to catch a fine view of the 

 wooded world below, on whose beauty Zara expatiated elo- 

 quently; and though they talked of a thousand different sub- 

 jects, which I have not paused to mention here, lest the de- 

 tail should seem all too tedious, yet their ride passed away 

 briefly, like a dream. At length, coining through some green 

 lanes, overhung by young saplings and a crowd of brambles 



