No such brilliant morning dawned on the worship of the Saxon goddess
Eostre, in cloudy, forest-clad England in the centuries long past, as
broke over the eastern mountains on that sacred day. At half-past five
the sun appeared above the shaggy summit of the Beacon, and the steel
hues of the placid Hudson were changed into sparkling silver. A white
mist rested on the water between Storm King, Break Neck, and Mount
Taurus. In the distance it appeared as if snow had drifted in and half
filled the gorge of the Highlands. The orange and rose-tinted sky
gradually deepened into an intense blue, and although the land was as
bare and the forests were as gaunt as in December, a soft glamour over
all proclaimed spring.
Spring was also in Amy's eyes, in the oval delicacy of her girlish face
with its exquisite flush, in her quick, deft hands and elastic step as she
arranged baskets and vases of flowers. Webb watched her with his deep eyes,
and his Easter worship began early in the day. True homage it was, because
so involuntary, so unquestioning and devoid of analysis, so utterly free
from the self-conscious spirit that expects a large and definite return for
adoration. His sense of beauty, the poetic capabilities of his nature, were
kindled. Like the flowers that seemed to know their place in a harmony of
color when she touched them, Amy herself was emblematic of Easter, of its
brightness and hopefulness, of the new, richer spiritual life that was
coming to him.
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