song which had sung me asleep; only now, to my mind, it sounded
like a farewell and a speedwell. I sat a long time, unwilling to
go; but my unfinished story urged me on. I must act and wander.
With the sun well risen, I rose, and put my arms as far as they
would reach around the beech-tree, and kissed it, and said good-
bye. A trembling went through the leaves; a few of the last
drops of the night's rain fell from off them at my feet; and as I
walked slowly away, I seemed to hear in a whisper once more the
words: "I may love him, I may love him; for he is a man, and I
am only a beech-tree."





CHAPTER V

"And she was smooth and full, as if one gush
Of life had washed her, or as if a sleep
Lay on her eyelid, easier to sweep
Than bee from daisy."
BEDDOIS' Pygmalion.

"Sche was as whyt as lylye yn May,
Or snow that sneweth yn wynterys day."
Romance of Sir Launfal.


I walked on, in the fresh morning air, as if new-born. The only
thing that damped my pleasure was a cloud of something between