6 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



a nobler birdlife than ours ; and after she had 

 listened eagerly for some minutes, and had then been 

 silent a little while, she all at once pressed her two 

 hands together, and exclaimed rapturously, " Oh, 

 I do so love the birds ! " 



I replied that that was not strange, since it is 

 impossible for us not to love whatever is lovely, and 

 of all living things birds were made most beautiful. 



Then I walked away, but could not forget the words 

 she had exclaimed, her whole appearance, the face 

 flushed with colour, the eloquent brown eyes spark- 

 ling, the pressed palms, the sudden spontaneous 

 passion of delight and desire in her tone. The 

 picture was in my mind all that day, and lived through 

 the next, and so wrought on me that I could not 

 longer keep away from the birds, which I, too, 

 loved ; for now all at once it seemed to me that life 

 was not life without them ; that I was grown sick 

 and all my senses dim ; that only the wished sight 

 of wild birds could medicine my vision ; that only 

 by drenching it in their wild melody could my 

 tired brain recover its lost vigour. 



