in those fresh woods far away?'

Kate looked at Mr. Lennox with ravished eyes; his words had flooded her
mind with a thousand forgotten dreams. She felt she liked him better for
what he had said, and she murmured as if half ashamed:

'I've never been out of Hanley. I've never seen the sea, and when I was a
child I used to fancy that the fairies lived beyond those hills; even now I
can't help imagining that the world is quite different over there. Here it
is all brick, but in novels they never speak of anything but gardens and
fields.'

'Never seen the sea! Well, there isn't much to _see_ in it,' Mr.
Lennox said, laughing at the pun. 'When you were a little girl you used to
come here to play, I suppose?'

'Yes, sir; I was born over in one of those cottages.'

Mr. Lennox, without knowing whether to look sorry or sentimental, listened
patiently to Kate, who, proud of being able to show him anything, drew his
attention to the different points of view. The white gables that could just
be distinguished in the large dark masses of trees was Bucknell Rectory.
The fragment of the cliff on the top of the highest ridge half-way up the
sky was Watley Rocks; then came Western Coyney, the plains of Standon, and
far away in a blue mist the outlines of the Wever Hills. But Mr. Lennox did
not seem very much interested; the sun was too hot for him, and in the
first pause of the conversation he asked Kate which way she was going. He
had to get on to the theatre, and he asked her if she would show him the
way there.