Virginia -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775 -- Fiction
In the illimitable forest, too, in the monotony of sunshine and shade,
of glade and dell, of crystal streams and tiny valleys, each the
counterpart of the other, in dense woods and grassy savannahs; in the
yesterday so like to-day, and the to-day so like to-morrow, there was no
hint of the future. It was enchanted ground, where to-morrow must
always be like to-day. They kept their faces to the east, and they
walked each day as many leagues as her strength would permit, and
Landless, imitating as best he could the dead Susquehannock, took all
precautions to cover their trail; but that done all was done, and they
put care behind them. Landless, walking in a dream, knew that it was a
dream, and said to himself, "I must awaken, but not yet. I will dream
and be happy yet a little while." But Patricia dreamt and knew it not.
She kept her wonted state, or, rather, with a quiet insistence he kept
it for her. He never addressed her save as "Madam," and he cared for
her comfort, and in all things bore himself towards her with the formal
courtesy he would have shown a queen. He said to himself, "Godfrey
Landless, Godfrey Landless, thou mayst forget much, perhaps, for a
little while; but not this! If thou dost, thou art no honorable man."
Master of himself, he walked beside her, cared for her, tended her,
guarded her, served her as if he had been a knight-errant out of a
romance, and she a distressed princess. And she rewarded him with a
delicate kindliness, and a perfectly trustful, childlike dependence upon
his strength, wisdom, and resource. All her bearing towards him was
marked by an inexpressible charm, half-playful, wholly gracious and
womanly. The lady of the manor was gone, and in her place moved the
Patricia Verney of the enchanted forest—a very different creature.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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