'THE DEWY MORN' 231 



' The rugged oak-trunk was pleasant to her. She placed 

 her hand on the brown, stained wood — stained with its 

 own sap, for the bark had been removed. She touched 

 it ; and so full of life was her touch, that it found a pleasure 

 in that rude wood. The brown boulder-stone in the lane, 

 ancient, smoothed, and ground in times which have 

 vanished like a cloud, its surface the colour of old polished 

 oak, reflecting the sun with a dull gleam — the very 

 boulder-stone was pleasant to her, so full of life was her 

 sense of sight. 



' There came a skylark, dropping over the hedge, and 

 alighted on a dusty level spot in the lane. His shadow 

 shot a foot long on the dust, thrown by the level beams of 

 the sun. The dust, in shadow and sunshine — the despised 

 dust — now that the lark drew her glance to it, was 

 pleasant to see. 



' All things are joyously beautiful to those who feel 

 themselves to be ; but it is only given to the chosen of 

 nature to know this exceeding delight. 



' In herself rapt, the whole face of earth and sky 

 ministered to her, each and all that made up the visible 

 world was flung at her feet. They did homage — Felise, 

 queen of herself, was queen of all. 



' It was love without a lover — love absorbed in itself. 

 Her whole existence was quivering with love ; this in- 

 tensity of life was love. She was gathering from sun- 

 light, azure sky and grassy fields, from dewy hills and 

 all the morning, an immense strength to love. Her 

 parted lips sighed — there was such store and warmth of 

 love within them. Without a thought she thought deeply, 

 pondering, weighed down on herself with weight of 

 feeling. Her own intense existence absorbed her. . . . 



' There was nothing large, gigantic, or Amazonian 

 about her ; it was the perfection of her physical nature, 

 not size or training. Her natural body had been further 

 perfected by a purely natural life. The wind, the sun, 

 the fields, the hills — freedom, and the spirit which dwells 

 among these, had made her a natural woman ; such a 



