"Viola was now often allowed to join the hunting parties, and she and her boy lover were thrown more than ever together. It was a happy time for both of them, living as they did only for the pleasure of the moment, and disregarding all thought of the future. They were too young and reckless either to know or consider the consequences of their present folly. But nature moves in her own way, following her own laws, whether her children regard them or not. She has her own ends to fulfil, and is utterly callous of conventional restrictions; to her there is neither king nor slave, neither queen nor serving-maid, but only male and female, and she treats all alike, without respect of persons or regard to social convenience. It is her children’s fault, not hers, if things turn out disastrously; if men make restrictions for themselves which have no part in her plan of action and impose laws which interfere with her wider and more impartial scheme. "The winter came and went, and many of the same spring flowers which now make our lanes so beautiful at this time of the year, carpeted the open glades of the forest, and bordered the pure untainted streams. The delicate lacework of drooping ferns was reflected in the still pools, then stocked with fish as yet unacquainted with guile; the May-fly required no second inspection, but might be devoured recklessly without fear of fatal results, while the wriggling worm which strayed too near the bank, and turned over gently into the water, had not the chances of escape which he now enjoys. No committee of taste would then lie round to study his movements for fear that a dangerous hook might be concealed somewhere in his body. "It was on a lovely evening shortly after the cuckoo’s note had become once more a familiar sound, that Viola and Aureus, returning from a ramble in the wood, were met a few yards from the enclosure by Marius. As the girl glanced up at her father, she was suddenly overwhelmed with terror. She had seen anger often on his face before, but never when he had looked at her, and never such deep anger as this. What was the meaning of it? "With a haughty word he dismissed the slave, and telling his daughter to follow, went on toward the forest. For some time the silence was only broken by the sound of their footsteps, and the sweet singing of the birds. At last the man stopped, and turning round, looked fixedly at his daughter for a moment. Then, with a deep-drawn sob, half of anger and half of pain, he cried--