Robert W. Chambers

“ Suddenly her face took a deeper flush, as though she had come to an unexpected decision; her entire manner changed to serene self-possession. "What are you going to do with me?" she asked curiously.
"I'm afraid I can't put you in jail," he admitted. "You see, there's no punishment for swimming in favorite trout pools and spoiling a man's morning sport. Now, if you had only thought of catching one of my trout I could arrange to have you imprisoned."
"Please arrange it immediately, then," she said, lifting an enormous trout from the canoe and holding it up by the gills with both hands. ”

“ Spreading branches, dew-spangled, slapped his face as he passed; the moist rich odor of clean earth filled throat and lungs; a subdued, almost breathless expectancy brooded in the wake of the south wind.
When he emerged from the forest and entered the long glade, mountain and thicket were swimming in crystalline light; ferns hung weighted with dew; the outrush of bird music was incessant. ”

“ La vie est un sommeil; l'amour en est le réve!"
He sat for a long while, very still, head buried in his hands. A violet mist veiled water and trees; through it the setting sun sent fiery shafts through the mountain cleft. And when the last crimson shaft was sped and tree and water faded into darker harmony, the canoe had drifted far downstream, and now lay still in the shoreward sands ”

“ The long-dormant passion which sleeps but never dies awoke in him; the flush on his lean cheeks deepened as he turned and looked across the pool where the pretty intruder stood watching him, an eager question dancing in her eyes.
"I'd like to try," he said. "Do you mind?"
"Tell me what to do."
"Paddle very quietly over here—very carefully and without a splash. Can you do it?"
She loosened the canoe noiselessly, a lithe figure in her wet brown skirt and stockings. The mellow glow enveloped her as she moved into the shadows ”

“ He stared stupidly for a moment, then rose and stepped through the thicket to the edge of the water. A canoe glittered out there, pulled up on a flat, sunny rock in midstream, and upon the rock lay a girl in a dripping bathing dress drying her hair in the sun. ”

“ She smiled uncertainly, and lifted a rod from the canoe.
"By Jove, that looks like one of my rods!" he exclaimed. "Where did you get it?"
Her eyes were bright with excitement; she shook her head, laughing.
"Are you in league with my doctor? Who are you?" he insisted.
"Only a poacher," she admitted. "I creep about and lurk outside windows where doctors talk in loud voices about big trout they have seen. Then—I go and catch them."
They were both laughing now; she standing beside the canoe, rod in hand, he balanced on a rock opposite. ”

“ Haven't you read all my notices nailed up on trees? 'Warning! All trespassers will be dealt with to the full extent of the law'—and much more to similar effect? And do you know what a very dreadful thing it is to be dealt with to the full extent of the law? ”