Page:Ballinger Price--The Happy Venture.djvu/82

68 But indeed, at first glance, the grave shadowed beauty of Kirk's eyes did not betray their blindness.

"Are you one of the enchanted things, or a person?" Kirk inquired.

"I might say, now, that I am enchanted," said the voice, drily.

"I don't think I quite know what you mean," Kirk said. "You sound like a Puck of Pook's Hill sort of person."

"Nothing so exciting. Though Oak and Ash and Thorn do grow in my garden."

"Do they? I haven't found them. I knew it was a different place, ever so different from anything near—different from the other side of the hedge."

"I am not so young as you," said the voice, "to stand about hatless on an April afternoon. Let us come in and sit on either side of the chimney-corner."

And a long, dry, firm hand took Kirk's, and Kirk followed unhesitatingly where it led.

The smoothness of old polished floors, a sense of height, absolute silence, a dry, aromatic smell—this was Kirk's impression as he crossed the threshold, walking carefully and softly, that