At the corner of the _carrefour_, the serpent catcher showed them two vipers in a low flat box. They darted their forked tongues against the wire netting, and the large green snake, which he took out of a bag, curled round his arm, seeking to escape. In questioning him they learnt that the snakes were on their way to the laboratory of a vivisectionist. This dissipated the mystery which they had suggested, and the carriage drove in silence down the long forest road. 'We might have bought those snakes from him, and set them at liberty.' 'We might have, but we didn't.' 'Why didn't we?' 'What would be the good? ... If we had, he would have caught others.' 'I suppose so. But I don't like the idea of that beautiful snake, which you compared to me, being vivisected.' The forest now extended like a great temple, hushed in the beautiful ritual of the sunset. The light that suffused the green leaves overhead glossed the brown leaves underfoot, marking the smooth grosund as with a pattern. And, like chapels, every dell seemed in the tranquil light, and leading from them a labyrinthine architecture without design or end. Mildred's eyes wandered from the colonnades to the underwoods. She thought of the forest as of a great green prison; and then her soul fled to the scraps of blue that appeared through the thick leafage, and she longed for large spaces of sky, for a view of a plain, for a pine-plumed hill-top. Once more she admired, once more she wearied of the forest aisles, and was about to suggest returning to Barbizon when Morton said: 'We are nearly there now; I'm going to show you our lake.' 'A lake! Is there a lake?' 'Yes, there's a lake--not a very large one, it is true, but still a lake--on the top of a hill where you can see the forest. Under a sunset sky the view is magnificent.' The carriage was to wait for them, and, a little excited by the adventure, Mildred followed Morton through rocks and furze bushes. When it was possible she took his arm, and once accidentally, or nearly accidentally, she sprang from a rock into his arms. She was surprised that he did not take advantage of the occasion to kiss her. 'Standing on this flat rock we're like figures in a landscape, by Wilson,' Mildred said. 'So we are,' said Morton, who was struck by the truth of the comparison. 'But there is too much colour in the scene for Wilson--he would have reduced it all to a beautiful blue, with only a yellow flush to tell where the sun had gone.' 'It would be very nice if you would make me a sketch of the lake. I'll lend you a lead pencil, the back of an envelope will do.' 'I've a water-colour box in my pocket and a block. Sit down there and I'll do you a sketch.' 'And, while you are accomplishing a work of genius, I'll supply the levity, and don't you think I'm just the person to supply the necessary leaven of lightness? Look at my frock and my sunshade.'