The farmer's children, at play at the end of the house, occasionally darted out to peep at them, and flew back again the moment they were perceived.

Everything else was still, even the leaves overhead did not move, and the silence was so infectious that by degrees all talk ceased--each had his or her own dreams for the moment.

Bella and Doctor Morton, utterly unromantic pair of lovers as they were, must have had some touch of the ordinary softness of human nature; they looked content with all the world.

Lucia, leaning back with her crochet lying on her lap, and her eyes half hidden by their black lashes, had yielded herself up entirely to the indolent enjoyment of perfect stillness, forgetting even to be conscious of the pair of handsome blue eyes which rested on her, taking in luxuriously the charm of her beauty.
When this pause had lasted a minute or two, a sudden glance passed between Mr.and Mrs.Bellairs.His said, "I am afraid you were right;"-- hers, "What shall we do ?" to which he replied by getting up, and saying, "Are you all going to sleep, good people ?" A reluctant stir, and change of position among the group, answered him.
"What else can we do ?" asked Bella.

"It is too hot to move." "If you intend to go on the river to-day, it had better be soon," said her brother-in-law.