Page:The Fruit of the Tree (Wharton 1907).djvu/150

Rh left behind, and only the spirit in him rode the wild blue currents of galloping air; but as the sled’s rush began to slacken with the strain of the last ascent he was recalled to himself by the touch of the breathing warmth at his back. Bessy had put out a hand to steady herself, and as she leaned forward, gripping his arm, a ﬂying end of her furs swept his face. There was a delicious pang in being thus caught back to life; and as the sled stopped, and he sprang to his feet, he still glowed with the sensation. Bessy too was under the spell. In the dusk of the beech-grove where they had landed, he could barely distinguish her features; but her eyes shone on him, and he heard her quick breathing as he stooped to help her to her feet.

“Oh, how beautiful—it’s the only thing better than a good gallop!”

She leaned against a tree-bole, panting a little, and loosening her furs.

“What a pity it’s too dark to begin again!” she sighed, looking about her through the dim weaving of leaﬂess boughs.

“It’s not so dark in the open—we might have one more,” he proposed; but she shook her head, seized by a new whim.

“It’s so still and delicious in here—did you hear the snow fall when that squirrel jumped across to the pine?” She tilted her head, narrowing her lids as she peered [ 134 ]