But I could find nothing to say. I looked at her as she sat there, gentle and peaceful, surrounded with the clear sunshine. Everything about us glowed with happiness; the sky, the earth, the water. It seemed as if the very air was bathed in a splendor. "Look, how beautiful!" I said, involuntarily lowering my voice. "Yes, beautiful," she answered as gently, without looking at me. "If we were both birds, we would fly high up there--would soar. We would sink deep into that blue. But we are no birds." "We may have wings though," I answered. "How?" "In time you will discover. There are feelings that swing us off from the earth. Don't fear; you will have wings." "Have you had them then?" "How shall I say? I believe that I have never flown till now." Assja fell again into thought. I bent toward her a little. "Can you waltz?" she asked unexpectedly. "Yes, I can," I answered, somewhat surprised. "Then come, come--I will ask my brother to play a waltz for us--we will imagine that we are flying, that our wings have grown." She ran to the house. I hastened after her, and in a few moments we were whirling round the narrow room to the music of a charming waltz. Assja danced exceedingly well, with lightness and skill. Something soft and feminine came suddenly into her childish, earnest face. For a long time afterward my hand felt the contact of her delicate form, for a long time I seemed to feel her close, quickened breathing, and to see before me the dark, fixed, half-closed eyes, and the animated pale face with its wreathing hair. * * * * *