"Because there was a Greek book and a dictionary there in the boat with him."
"Then I suppose he is studying it," said Mr. Herder.
Elizabeth changed her mind and agreed to go with the huckle- berry party; but she carried a book with her and sat in a corner with it, seldom giving her eyes to anything beside.
Yet there was enough on every hand to call them away. The soft grey sky and grey water, the deep heavy-green foliage of the banks, and the fine quiet outlines of the further mountains, set off by no brilliant points of light and shade, — made a picture rare in its kind of beauty. Its colouring was not the cold grey of the autumn, only a soft mellow chastening of summer's gorgeousness. A little ripple on the water, — a little fleckiness in the cloud, — a quiet air; it was one of summer's choice days, when she escapes from the sun's fierce watch and sits down to rest herself. But Elizabeth's eyes, if they wavered at all, were called off by some burst of the noisy sociability of the party, in which she deigned not to share. Her cousin, Mr. Herder, Rufus, Asahel, and Winifred, were in full cry after pleasure; and a cheery hunt they made of it.
"Miss Elisabet' does look grave at us," said the naturalist, — "she is the only one wise of us all; she does nothing but read. What are you reading, Miss Elisabet'?"
"Something you don't know, Mr. Herder."
"O it's only a novel," said her cousin; "she reads nothing but novels."
"That's not true, Rose Cadwallader, and you know it."
"A novel!" said Mr. Herder. "Ah! — yes — that is what the ladies read — they do not trouble themselves wiz ugly big dictionaries — they have easy times."
He did not mean any reproof; but Elizabeth's cheek coloured exceedingly and for several minutes kept its glow; and though her eyes still held to the book, her mind had lost it.