Page:On the Hill-top (1919).pdf/47

 "And still you are lonely. What was it that you really wanted besides, when you went to join the groups?"

Marjorie sat still and thought.

Again the Dream asked. "What were you really seeking in those groups? What more did you want?"

"Oh," cried Marjorie, "I suppose that I wanted sympathy and flattery and carelessness and amusement—and—"

"And you found just what you went after," said the Dream.

"Yes, and when I got them I abominated them. Oh, yes, I know; I ought to have gone looking for something better; but I didn't think of that, and the others seemed to be having such a good time, and I was so lonely and——"

"Let us go up on the hill-top again," said the Dream.

Marjorie looked lovingly about at the ferns and the vines and the splashing stream and up at the glimpses of blue, high overhead, and down at the reflections in the pool below. Then she touched softly the long green frond that bent over the water, and then she stood up on the boulder. "I am ready," she said, and together they climbed down to the rocky footholds in the stream, and across among the tall green growths and back to the trail again. Along this they walked silently until they came out into the sunshine once more, and then around the long curve that led to the hill-top. When they had reached there, Marjorie sat down on the grass under the tree where they