Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III A SHORT STUDY IN CONTRASTS A restlessness of heart, a silent yearning, A sense of something wanting, incomplete— Not to be put in words, perhaps avoided By mute consent . . . —Robert Browning. . . . O Pan, How gracious is the mountain at this hour! . . . The sun Is shining on the brilliant mountain crests, And on the highest pines. . . . —Matthew Arnold. "DOTH were well worth looking at. The man was tall—as tall as Radnor himself—and exhibited a prodigal expenditure of strength and magnificence quite in keeping with the mountains of which he seemed an integral part. He was fair,—or one gathered as much from his rough tawny crop of hair. His skin was burnt deeply by the sun—not to the smooth brown that covered Jack's clear-cut face, but to a color more ruddy and alive; the sunburn of a very fair man. With his hawklike blue eyes, the splendid fling ot his great limbs, and that glowing, coppery coloring, he might have been a young god, just descended from the dazzling ether, or sprung up from the flaming heart of the earth. Enid absolutely gasped when she saw him. Even his clothes were right—a loose shirt, open at the neck to show his strong sun-burnt throat and sleeves rolled high up his fine arms, and the roughest of trousers and top-boots. He carried a shabby old hat in one hand, and a huge bunch of mountain laurel in the other. As for the girl—if Jack did not actually gasp at the sight of her, he certainly did pull up his mount with an involuntary jerk, which much surprised that animal. Champion had been hired by Radnor by the month and had grown used to the lightest of snaffle riding, and the most reassuring of knee-pressure. So he reared, did the horse, just to show his amazement. But, even in quieting himwith apologetic hand and voice, ...