His horse, docile and well-trained, stood unfastened in
the thicket, cropping the young and tender herbage at some little
distance; but so habituated to rule that no other security than his own
will was considered by his master necessary for his continued presence.
The lover waited not long. Descending the hill, through a narrow pathway
one side of the wood, well known and frequently trodden by both, he
beheld the approach of the maiden, and hurried forward to receive her.
The terms upon which they had so long stood forbade constraint, and put
at defiance all those formalities which, under other circumstances,
might have grown out of the meeting. She advanced without hesitancy, and
the hand of her lover grasped that which she extended, his arm passed
about her, his lip was fastened to her own without hinderance, and, in
that one sweet embrace, in that one moment of blissful forgetfulness,
all other of life's circumstances had ceased to afflict.
But they were not happy even at that moment of delight and illusion.
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