I began my chronicle to-night by saying it had been two weeks since I
talked with the dryad in the glade. Why should I reckon time from that?
I wrote the sentence unconsciously. Now, when I come to think about it,
I realize that the dryad has been in my mind a very great deal during
the last fortnight. You must know there is to be no concealment in this
narrative. It is to be a record of absolute truth. Not only what I do,
but what I think and feel, shall be faithfully set down. She--I don't
even know her name! I can't see why I should have parted from her
without asking her name, since I shall in all likelihood see her many
times during the coming year. Perhaps it was her eyes which made me
forget such an important question. I have never seen eyes like
hers--never. They are the Irish gray. That's a different gray from all
others, as I suppose you know. Don't ask me how they are different, for
I don't propose to attempt an explanation. But they are, and especially
is this true in women's eyes. A woman with Irish gray eyes can be
dangerous if she wants to. In addition to their remarkable color, the
dryad's eyes have very white lids which droop the least bit, perpetually
shading the iris. She is something of a paradox. She has small feet,
smooth hands and carefully kept nails, but her language, while spoken in
a peculiarly pleasing voice, is so ungrammatical and colloquial that it
makes rigors creep over me. I told her that I was coming to see her and
her granny, but I haven't gone. Why haven't I? I told her I was coming
to see her because I got lonely. Have I been lonely? Yes; very. Three
days ago I bravely started for the glade where I had found her,
intending to follow the guiding creek on to Lizard Point. I turned off
before I reached the creek and went ten miles in another direction. Why
did I do that? I want to see the dryad again. She interests me; I feel
that we shall be good friends. She has a bright and ready mind, and is
absolutely natural. She says what she wants to, laughs when she wants
to, does what she wants to. I verily think she would be incapable of
deception or guile, but I may be wrong in this. I suspect I am. Such
things are not conditions resultant from culture and refinement; they
belong to the human organism, and so, by virtue of her being, the dryad
must possess them.
To-morrow I am going to Lizard Point.
This afternoon I came in before sunset from a very leisurely tramp of
about four hours. Whenever I stir abroad my pint Mason jar full of fresh
water goes with me, for I have banished all doubt, and believe
steadfastly in the life-plant. You may be sure I am always looking,
always watching. That is my sole object in life just now. I feel that I
will find the thing if it grows in this part of the world, for my search
is to be most thorough. Thus far I have discovered nothing whatever to
arouse hope or anticipation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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