The countenance with which the pines regarded her
began insensibly to change; the grass too, short as it was, and the
whole winding staircase of the brook's course, began to wear a
solemn freshness of appearance. And this slow transfiguration
reached her heart, and played upon it, and transpierced it with a
serious thrill. She looked all about; the whole face of nature
looked back, brimful of meaning, finger on lip, leaking its glad
secret. She looked up. Heaven was almost emptied of stars. Such
as still lingered shone with a changed and waning brightness, and
began to faint in their stations. And the colour of the sky itself
was the most wonderful; for the rich blue of the night had now
melted and softened and brightened; and there had succeeded in its
place a hue that has no name, and that is never seen but as the
herald of morning. 'O!' she cried, joy catching at her voice, 'O!
it is the dawn!'
In a breath she passed over the brook, and looped up her skirts and
fairly ran in the dim alleys. As she ran, her ears were aware of
many pipings, more beautiful than music; in the small dish-shaped
houses in the fork of giant arms, where they had lain all night,
lover by lover, warmly pressed, the bright-eyed, big-hearted singers
began to awaken for the day. Her heart melted and flowed forth to
them in kindness. And they, from their small and high perches in
the clerestories of the wood cathedral, peered down sidelong at the
ragged Princess as she flitted below them on the carpet of the moss
and tassel.
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