The probing of nature to discover her secrets.

Here was a female thing with a soul unafraid in her pure innocence, alone in the night.
Halcyone did not interrupt his meditations, and presently they came to the broken gate close to the house.
Cheiron paused and leaned on the top bar.
"Is this the elves' home ?" he asked.
"Yes," she answered gravely.

"But so late in the day you cannot see them.

You must wait again until the sun is setting; and I expect when it is warm they come in the moonlight, too, but I have not been able to get a fine enough night--as yet.

This avenue is the most beautiful of all, because a hundred years ago the La Sarthes had a quarrel with the Wendovers, whose land just touches at the end of it, and they closed the gate, and so the turf has covered the gravel.