They did not speak, but looked at each other with an air of smiling confusion.

The young man would indeed have liked to keep the girl in that position.

She turned to him a charming head, with handsome black eyes, and red lips, which quite astonished and stirred him.

He had never before seen a girl so near; he had not known that lips and eyes could be so pleasant to look at.
Everything about the girl seemed to possess a strange fascination for him--her coloured neckerchief, her white bodice, her blue cotton skirt hanging from braces which stretched with the motion of her shoulders.
Then his glance glided along the arm which was handing him the tool; as far as the elbow this arm was of a golden brown, as though clothed with sun-burn; but higher up, in the shadow of the tucked-up sleeve, Silvere perceived a bare, milk-white roundness.

At this he felt confused; however, he leant further over, and at last managed to grasp the chisel.
The little peasant-girl was becoming embarrassed.