(? BIRDS IN A VILLAGE. 
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 sparkling, 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. 
After wandering somewhat aimlessly about the 
country for a couple of days I stumbled by chance 
on just such a spot as I had been wishing to find — 
a rustic village not too far away ; it was not more 
than twenty-five minutes' walk from a small 
station, only one hour by rail from London. 
