"Isn't it beautiful," Nance remarked in response to Dick's greeting. "I love the lake, mountains, and trees. I have looked upon them ever since I was a child, and they are very near to my heart."
"How fortunate they are," the young man murmured, gazing with admiration upon her bright face.
"Oh, they know nothing about it," Nance laughed. "It is an all one-sided love, you see."
"I wish that I could change places with them for a while. I wonder if your feelings would be the same then."
A deep flush suffused Nance's cheeks at these words, and her eyes dropped for an instant. Dick noticed her embarrassment, and he was afraid lest he had offended her.
"Pardon me," he hastened to explain. "I fear that I have said too much. I allowed my heart to overcome my head, or, in other words, I made a fool of myself."
"You didn't offend me," Nance shyly replied. "I was thinking how funny it would be if you took the place of the mountains, trees, and lake."
"And why?" Dick questioned.
"Because you would have such a hard time of it. You have only seen them in peace and sunshine. If you could look upon them as I have, when a fierce storm is raging over the land, you would not envy them then. But I love them just the same. I like to hear the wind roaring down the valley, to see the trees shake and bend, and the water of the lake lashed into foam. Oh, it is grand!"
Dick looked with amazement into the face of the young woman at his side. He saw it transformed. Her cheeks were aglow, and her eyes were very bright as she gazed far off into space and beheld the scene she so vividly described. He knew that it was no ordinary woman that uttered such words. Though naturally quiet and reserved, there were within her soul great depths of thought. She was in harmony with her surroundings, and her rich blood pulsated to the tunes of the moods of the wilderness. All this appealed strongly to Dick. To him she was the most beautiful and yet mysterious woman he had ever met. Everything she said and did was so natural. There was nothing artificial or unreal about her. To her the veneer of polite social life was unknown.