Save for the noise of the horse's feet and the crunch of narrow, iron-tired wheels, the stillness was absolute under the azure splendour of the heavens.
"I am not yet quite at my ease—quite accustomed to it," she said.
"To what, Valerie?"
"To the stillness; to the remote horizons…. At night the vastness of things, the height of the stars, fascinate me to the edge of uneasiness. And sometimes I go and sit in my room for a while—to reassure myself…. You see I am used to an enclosure—the walls of a room—the walled-in streets of New York…. It's like suddenly stepping out of a cellar to the edge of eternal space, and looking down into nothing."
"Is that the way these rolling hillocks of Delaware County impress you?" he asked, laughing.
"Yes, Kelly. If I ever found myself in the Alps I believe the happiness would so utterly over-awe me that I'd remain in my hotel under the bed. What are you laughing at? Voluptates commendat rarior usus."
"Sit tua cura sequi, me duce tutus eris!" he laughed, mischievously testing her limit of Latin.
"Plus e medico quam e morbo periculi!" she answered, saucily.
"You cunning little thing!" he exclaimed: "vix a te videor posse tenere manus!"
"Di melius, quam nos moneamus talia quenquam!" she said, demurely; "Louis, we are becoming silly! Besides, I probably know more Latin than you do—as it was my mother's favourite relaxation to teach me to speak it. And I imagine that your limit was your last year at Harvard."