Arthur Stringer

“ Now, when a taciturn young scholar helps a young woman over a snake fence, sobriety shudders on her throne; for as he caught her, and felt the clasp of her girlish arms and the warm and fragrant weight of her light body, he so far sent the eternal proprieties to kennel as to wonder just how many similar obstacles might lie in their path that morning.
“Isn't it fun?” cried Sybil, with her childish and innocent bubble of delight. She shook herself free, and tossed back her hair. The young professor suddenly joined in her laughter with great vigor. ”

“ From the sheep pasture they crossed into the cool and shadowy old apple orchard. As he helped the laughing girl down from the fence top, the young professor again tingled with that embarrassing and indescribable thrill, at the clasp of her warm hand in his.
Something in his contemplative and uncompromising solemnity of mien, as they started on their way once more, prompted the girl to a sudden challenge. The morning had grown hot and quiet, but under the shadowy trees the dew was still cool and thick on the short grass. ”

“ Only the initiated might haye judged, from the deliberate and judicious way in which each foot came in contact with the short stubble, that he was still a slave of civilization and its pampering shoe leather. But now that the plunge had been made, he was determined to go on to the bitter end.
Far ahead, through the shadowy trees, he could hear Sybil's lightly re-echoed cry. It was like the call of a dryad through dim Sicilian groves, he told himself. He caught sight of her, flushed and panting, leaning against the lane fence, waiting for him. His feet were getting used to the stubble ”