"Quite."

There was something unusual in the tone of that little word. And the boy
stared--for the first time there seemed a real man standing there. Then
the blood rushed up into his cheeks, for there she was! Would she come
up to them? How splendid she was looking, burnt by the sun, and walking
as if just starting! But she passed into the hotel without turning her
head their way. Had he offended, hurt her? He made an excuse, and got
away to his room.

In the window from which that same morning he had watched the mountains
lying out like lions in the dim light, he stood again, and gazed at the
sun dropping over the high horizon. What had happened to him? He felt
so different, so utterly different. It was another world. And the most
strange feeling came on him, as of the flowers falling again all over
his face and neck and hands, the tickling of their soft-fringed edges,
the stinging sweetness of their scent. And he seemed to hear her voice
saying: "Feel!" and to feel her heart once more beating under his hand.


VI


Alone with that black-shawled figure in the silent church, Anna did
not pray. Resting there on her knees, she experienced only the sore
sensation of revolt. Why had Fate flung this feeling into her heart,
lighted up her life suddenly, if God refused her its enjoyment? Some of
the mountain pinks remained clinging to her belt, and the scent of them,
crushed against her, warred with the faint odour of age and incense.