"What might their comment be?" asked the lady, gazing up in his face with a look of interest.
"They seemed to say," he answered, "Joy thou too, young heart! All is transient, all are shadows. Taste thy morning in its prime. Be thy noontide firm and strong, strew thine evening path with flowers, embrace the right, eschew the wrong, and fear not when the coming hours shall gather thee to join that train which sweeps along."
"Why, it is verse!" cried Agnes, smiling.
"Not quite," he answered, "but so fancy made their sounds, words; and the cadence of the music added a sort of measure."
"'Twas sweet counsel and good of that kind dame, Imagination," rejoined the fair girl, "and yet, though the command was to be gay, your words, fair sir, are somewhat sad."
"Let us be gay then," he replied.
"With all my heart," she cried: "but what shall we be gay about?"
"Nay, if we have to search for a theme, better be as we are," answered the young Englishman, "nature is ever best; the mood of the moment is the only one that is worth having, because it is the only one that is true. It will change when it is time. But you are by nature gay, is it not so?"
"Oh, yes!" she answered, "I am gay as a free bird. Nay, good Dr. Scultetus, the court chaplain, would persuade me often I am light--but methinks not that; for I have felt many things long and deeply."
"And amongst them, love?" asked her companion.