On reaching Hemlock Hollow, Madeline asked the poor young man for his
hat, and returned it to him adorned with evergreens, which nearly
distracted him with bashfulness and delight, and drove him to seek a
safety-valve for his excitement in superhuman activity all the rest of
the morning, arranging croquet sets, hanging swings, breaking ice,
squeezing lemons, and fetching water.

"Oh, how thirsty I am!" sighed Madeline, throwing down her croquet
mallet.

"The ice-water is not yet ready, but I know a spring a little way off
where the water is cold as ice," said Henry.

"Show it to me this instant," she cried, and they walked off together,
followed by Ida Lewis's unhappy eyes.

The distance to the spring was not great, but the way was rough, and once
or twice he had to help her over fallen trees and steep banks. Once she
slipped a little, and for, a single supreme moment he held her whole
weight in his arms. Before, they had been talking and laughing gaily, but
that made a sudden silence. He dared not look at her for some moments,
and when he did there was a slight flush tingeing her usually colourless
cheek.

His pulses were already bounding wildly, and, at this betrayal that she
had shared his consciousness at that moment, his agitation was tenfold
increased. It was the first time she had ever shown a sign of confusion
in his presence. The sensation of mastery, of power over her, which it
gave, was so utterly new that it put a sort of madness in his blood.