"'Where is the coward would not dare To die for such a land!' Is not this scenery English, Mr. Holmes? We seldom see so large a tract, under as high cultivation, in this quarter of the globe; and where will we find another palace and park like that?" "Mr. Clinton intends to stock the park with deer," said Arthur. "That will bring before you yet more vividly the 'Homes of Merry England.'" "If an English landscape, it is an Italian light that gilds it," replied Lynn. "The highlands upon the other side of the river are Scottish; and the tropical growth of the tobacco fields would not be out of place under the Equator." "Shocking your gleanings, then, you return to what Charley calls 'the original proposition,' and pronounce it American scenery," concluded Arthur. "Precisely. One need not go abroad in quest of natural beauties. The fairest are culled for his native land." "What a romantic creek! that _is_ English!" exclaimed Ida. "I have G. P. R. James for authority; a rocky ford; a steep bank on either side; tangled undergrowth--and actually, a rustic foot-bridge! Oh! for the solitary horseman!" "There he is!" ejaculated Charley, and from the hazel-boughs emerged an old negro, mounted upon a shaggy donkey, a bag of corn behind him. "There is but a step, etc.," said Ida, despairingly. "It is my fate always to take it." With a hearty laugh, they wheeled their horses. Charley and Ida had the lead. Exhilarated by exercise and the scenes through which they had passed, and accustomed to chat familiarly with him, she ran on for some time without remarking that she received monosyllabic replies. "You are tired," she observed. "Not at all." "Out of humor, then?" "Do I look so?" "Not when you smile; but you are not making yourself agreeable." "I did not know that I had ever succeeded in doing so." "What! when Mr. Holmes says you are the only man who is never otherwise!" "He is partial. You can teach him better." "The intimacy between you two mystifies me more and more. He is all fire and impulse; you--" "A galvanised icicle! Do I freeze you!" "No. That is most wonderful of all. I am not afraid of you--although I have a cowardly horror of being laughed at." "A 'horror' you should overcome; it proceeds from vanity. Like most of us, you are not apt to do or say things which you consider particularly silly; and are offended that the public sees them in that light. Lynn is afflicted similarly, in a still greater degree. It will get him into trouble yet." "He is too independent to vacillate on account of ridicule," said Ida. "Men style the peevish resentment such dispositions exhibit, '_honor_,'" returned Charley, with a half bitter emphasis. "It is one of the million misnomers with which they deceive themselves." "Among the number I may place my mistaking conceit for sensibility?" "And concealment of one's feelings for _in_sensibility," he added. "You misunderstood me, Mr. Dana. I do not think you have a heart of adamant--"