The same trait in her, only less marked, was as satisfying to him, and
from one rare utterance to another their thoughts moved like consorted
ships from light to light along a home coast. A motion, a glance, a
gleam, a shade, told its tale, as across leagues of silence a shred of
smoke may tell one dweller in the wilderness the way or want of another.
Such converse may have been a mere phase of the New Englander's passion
for economy, or only the survival of a primitive spiritual commerce
which most of us have lost through the easier use of speech and print;
but the sister took calm delight in it, and it bound the two to each
other as though it were itself a sort of goodness or greatness.

"They have it of their mother," the old General sometimes said to
himself.

There were moments, too, when their intercourse was still more subtle,
and now they sat without exchange of glance or gesture, silent as chess
players, looking up the narrow water into a sunset exquisite in the
delicacy of its silvery plumes, fleeces pink and dusk, and illimitable
distances of palest green seen through fan-rays of white light shot down
from one dark, unthreatening cloud.

"Leonard," at length said the sister, as if she had studied every
possibility on the board before touching the chosen piece, "couldn't you
go away for a time?"

And with deliberate readiness the other gentle voice replied, "I don't
think I'd better."

While they spoke their gaze rested on the changing beauties of pool and
sky, and after the brief inquiry and response it still remained, though