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But, in the meantime, Zilda, sit down and see what a beautiful place this is; you have not looked at it. So she found a stone to sit on, and immediately her eyes were opened and she saw the loveliness around her. The river was not a very broad one, but ah! how blue it was, with a glint of gold on every wave.
The women relatives of these rejected suitors have boasted to mam'selle of their own domestic joys, and have drawn the contrast of her state in strong colour. Zilda only says 'Chut! or she lifts her chin a little, so that the pretty upward sweep of the neck is apparent, and lets them talk. Mam'selle is not the woman to be turned out of her way by talk.
He was a little stouter, a little more bald, but he skipped down upon the platform, radiant as to smile and the breadth of his gold watch-chain, and attired in a check coat which Zilda thought was the most perfect thing in costume which she had ever beheld. In a flash of thought it came to Zilda that there would be more than a momentary happiness for her.
Ever since, whenever Zilda goes out on the station platform, for a breath of air, for a moment's rest and refreshing, or, on business intent, to chide the loungers there, the roof of this church, at a half-mile's distance, twinkles brightly before her eyes, set in green fields or in a snow-buried world; and every time it catches her eye it brings to her mind more or less distinctly that she has in her own way tested religion and found it true, because the particular boon which she had demanded at this time was granted.
'See them, said Gilby; 'they look like streaks of yellow light! 'I see, said Zilda, and she did see for the first time. Now Gilby had a certain capacity for rejoicing in the beauties of nature; it was overlaid with huge conceit in his own taste and discernment and a love of forcing his observations on other people, but the flaws in his character Zilda was not in a position to see.
All the way along, bobolinks, canaries, and song-sparrows had been singing to her, the swallows and red-throats had been talking; everywhere among the soft spongy mosses, the singing frog of the Canadian spring had been filling the air with its one soft whistling note. Zilda had not heard them, but now she stopped suddenly with head bent, listening eager, enraptured.
He thought the best thing would be to have nothing more to do with Zilda; but the next day, in the bustle of his departure, remembering all she had done for him, he relented entirely, and he gave her a kiss.
She could not have told why she dissembled; it was instinct, just as it was the instinct of his proud little spirit to hate to own that he was helpless. 'Look here, he said, 'I slipped on the bank and I I think I have sprained my ankle. 'Oui, monsieur, said Zilda. Her manner evinced no surprise; her stolidity was grateful to him.
No one noticed his absence at first but Zilda. Two weeks passed and then they all spoke of it. Then some one in St. Armand ascertained that Gilby had had a rise in the firm in which he was employed, that he sat in an office all day and did not travel any more.
'Voici Monsieur Geelby, she would cry, and pass along the station platform with consequential gait. A great laugh would break from the station loungers. 'Encore, they cried, and Zilda gave the encore. There was only one other relief she found from the horrible silence which had settled down upon her life concerning the object of her affection.