Perhaps Burt would not have long to wait; perhaps his rash, passionate
words had already given to Amy's girlish unconsciousness the shock that had
destroyed it, and she was learning that she was a woman who could return
love for love. Well, granting this, was it not just what they were all
expecting? "But the change is coming too soon," he complained to himself.
"I wish she could keep her gentle, lovable, yet unapproachable May-day
grace a little longer. Then she was like the wind-flower, which the eyes
can linger upon, but which fades almost the moment it is grasped. It made
her so different from other girls of her age. It identified her with the
elusive spirit of nature, whose beauty entrances one, but search and wander
where we will, nothing can be found that is distinctly and tangibly ours or
any one's. Amy, belonging definitely to any one, would lose half her
charm."
Webb saw and heard all that passed, but in a minor key thoughts like these
were forming themselves with little volition on his part, and were symptoms
which as yet he did not understand. In an interval of mirth, Johnnie heard
footsteps on the piazza, and darting out, caught a glimpse of Mr. Alvord's
retreating form. He had come on some errand, and, seeing the group at the
supper-table, had yielded to the impulse to depart unrecognized. This the
little girl would by no means permit. Since Easter an odd friendship had
sprung up between her and the lonely man, and she had become almost his
sole visitor.
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