She spoke with animation; and a sudden question shot across French's mind. She and Buntingford had been alone there under the darkness of the yews. If a listener had been lurking in that old hiding-place, what would he--or she--have heard? Then he shook the thought from him, and rowed vigorously for the creek. He tied the boat to a willow-stump, and helped Helena to land. "I warn you--" he said, laughing. "You'll tear your dress, and wet your shoes." But with her skirts gathered tight round her she was already halfway through the branches, and Geoffrey heard her voice from the further side-- "Oh I--such a wonderful place!" He followed her quickly, and was no less astonished than she. They stood in a kind of natural hall, like that "pillared shade" under the yews of Borrowdale, which Wordsworth has made immortal: beneath whose sable roof Of boughs, as if for festal purpose, decked With unrejoicing berries, Ghostly shapes May meet at noon-tide; Fear and trembling Hope, Silence and Foresight; Death the Skeleton And Time the Shadow:-- For three yew trees of great age had grown together, forming a domed tent of close, perennial leaf, beneath which all other vegetation had disappeared. The floor, carpeted with "the pining members" of the yews, was dry and smooth; Helena's light slippers scarcely sank in it. They groped their way; and Helena's hand had slipped unconsciously into Geoffrey's. In the velvety darkness, indeed, they would have seen nothing, but for the fact that the moon stood just above the wood, and through a small gap in the dome, where a rotten branch had fallen, a little light came down. "I've found the seat!" said Helena joyously, disengaging herself from her companion. And presently a dim ray from overhead showed her to him seated dryad-like in the very centre of the black interwoven trunks. Or, rather, he saw the sparkle of some bright stones on her neck, and the whiteness of her brow; but for the rest, only a suggestion of lovely lines; as it were, a Spirit of the Wood, almost bodiless. He stood before her, in an ecstasy of pleasure. "Helena!--you are a vision--a dream: Don't fade away! I wish we could stay here for ever." "Am I a vision?" She put out a mischievous hand, and pinched him. "But come here, Geoffrey--come up beside me--look! Anybody sitting here could see a good deal of the lake!" He squeezed in beside her, and true enough, through a natural parting in the branches, which no one could have noticed from outside, the little creek, with their boat in it, was plainly visible, and beyond it the lights on the lawn. "A jolly good observation post for a sniper!" said Geoffrey, recollections of the Somme returning upon him; so far as he was able to think of anything but Helena's warm loveliness beside him. Mad thoughts began to surge up in him. But an exclamation from Helena checked them: "I say!--there's something here--in the seat." Her hand groped near his. She withdrew it excitedly.