paper, and paints and setting to work to produce a picture. Sometimes it could mean doing nothing for a whole afternoon but observing. And that was the case on this particular afternoon. She had decided to paint the stream. But having set herself that task, she realized that she had never really seen it at all. It would have been easy ten years before or even more recently than that. Children always took for granted that water was blue. Her brightest blue paint would have been pulled out and in no time at all she would have had a satisfactory blue streak across the paper.
But, Helen realized, standing barefoot on the bank and gazing down at the water which flowed past, it was not blue at all. The realization would not have been so bad perhaps if she could have satisfied herself that it was gray or brown or gold or silver or any other color. The truth was that it was all those colors. And yet it was none of them. When she stooped down and scooped some drops into her palm, she found that they were completely colorless. And the water looked quite different from this close than it had looked a moment ago from the doorway of the hut. She looked up. Would it look different again from the branches of the old oak tree, which she had climbed many times? She hitched her skirts and climbed up to see.
Ten minutes later, Helen was back on the bank of the stream, lying on her stomach, her face propped up on her hands and suspended over the water. Her feet, crossed at the ankles, were waving in the air above bent knees. She was observing with all her senses. When she finally came to paint the scene, she wanted to be able to feel the water from the inside. She wanted to reproduce all the colors and shades, all the movement and life that were engrossing her full attention now. How wonderful nature wasl How could she possibly reproduce any of it with her brush without simplifying it beyond all meaning?
Her legs stopped moving suddenly and her back stiffened. She could feel prickles along her spine. There was something behind her. She had heard nothing, but she felt a presence very strongly. She hardly dared turn her head. Heaven knew what kind of vicious beast might be there just waiting to pounce at her smallest movement. She turned her head and glanced cautiously over one shoulder.
A man was leaning one shoulder against a tree some distance away, arms folded, watching her. She knew at a glance that he was Mr. Mainwaring. This was his land, after all, and one could hardly expect to find another strange and fashionable young man wandering in this particular area, especially when the young man was tall and dark. Yes, and handsome. Melly had been quite right. Helen did not move. She just continued to look.
Helen could feel her face flushing. She felt horribly embarrassed to be caught thus, in this position and in these clothes. She, Lady Helen Wade!
'Is it a wood nymph?' he asked. 'Or is it human?'
'Oh,' she said, and rolled over onto her knees, 'you did startle me. I thought you were a wild boar at the very least.' In self-protection, almost without realizing she did so, she used the North Country accent that the servants always used, instead of talking in her own voice.
He raised his eyebrows and moved forward to stand beside her on the bank, looking down into the water. 'It is a lovely spot you have chosen,' he said. 'Do you make it a habit to come into the woods?'
'They are yours, are they not?' she said. 'Would you mind if I said that I come here often?' She sat back on her heels the better to look up at him.
He smiled, and the expression completely transformed his rather austere features, she found. He stooped down on his haunches. 'Do you like to be alone sometimes too?' he asked. 'Or do you have the evil intention of burning my woods to the ground one of these days?'
'I like it here,' she said, her cheeks still aflame. 'This is my own special place, and if you were to forbid me to come, I should have to disobey you.'
He chuckled. 'Well, you are honest at least,' he said. 'And tell me, what is it you have to escape from? What are you supposed to be doing at this moment?'
Helen gazed back into his dark eyes, on a level with her own, her mind fast inventing a story that would sound plausible. But he went on to answer his own question.
'You should be helping at home, is that it?' he asked. 'Baking bread, or doing the family wash, or scrubbing the floors, or some other activity that is supposed to keep females happy?'
'Yes,' she said vaguely, and she began to feel her heartbeat return to normal. 'I slip away whenever I am able.'
'And suffer later, I suppose,' he said, and smiled again. 'Who are you?'
'Nell, sir,' she replied with only a moment's hesitation.
'And you have only one name, Nell?' he asked. 'But no matter. That is enough. It is a pretty name. It suits you, wood nymph. What were you doing when I came upon you?'
'Learning water,' she said earnestly.
'Learning water?'
'Yes,' she said. 'Tell me if you can, without looking, what color is water?'
He looked amused. 'Blue sometimes,' he said. 'Sometimes green or gray. It depends upon the sky.'
'But what if it is not exposed to the sky?' she asked. 'What if there are trees?'
'Then perhaps brown or green,' he said.
'You are right,' she said excitedly. 'All your answers are right all of the time. And yet you missed light and shade and movement and all the differing tones of the colors you named.'
'Indeed?' he said. 'You intrigue me.' But he was amused, teasing, Helen could see.
'Look,' she said. She became so engrossed in her subject that her embarrassment of a few minutes before and her awareness of the impropriety of her appearance and behavior were forgotten. She rolled Over onto her stomach again and leaned over the water. 'Look and tell me what you see.'
He followed her example and stretched out beside her. 'What do I see?' he asked. 'Let me consider a moment. Ah, yes. I see a wood nymph with lots of fair hair and large gray eyes. She looks just like you.'
Helen laughed with delight. 'You will not believe me, will you?' she said. 'It is true, though, as you will see if you but take the time to observe. There is a great deal to learn about water.'
'Yes,' he said more seriously, 'you are quite right, Nell. Many times one thinks that one sees nature and appreciates its beauty. But most of the time our senses but scratch the surface.'
'Oh, you do understand!' Helen exclaimed, turning a glowing face to him. 'Most people think I have windmills in my head when I talk that way. You like to be alone too, do you not? Is that why you came here? Or did you merely feel that you must explore every part of your property?'
'You know who I am then?' he said. 'But I suppose it is common knowledge in the village that I have come at last.'
'Oh, yes,' she said. 'Everyone knows, sir.'
William Mainwaring sat up on the bank and looked around him. 'That hut must belong to the gamekeeper who used to be employed here,' he said. 'I wonder if he left anything inside.'
'Oh, no, he did not,' Helen said quickly, catching at his arm as he made to rise. 'There is nothing at all inside, sir, and the door is stuck.'
He looked at her and the amusement was there in his eyes again. 'Nell,' he said, 'you are lying to me. Why must I not look inside?'
She blushed. 'Please,' she said, 'I use it sometimes. I do not do any harm. Such a ramshackle building cannot be of any use to you, can it? Please do not go inside.'
He relaxed into a sitting position again. 'Well, wood nymph,' he said, 'are you allowed to accept gifts from gentlemen? I hereby make you a present of the gamekeeper's hut and I shall never trespass without a personal invitation. Will that make you happy?'
'You are very kind,' she said earnestly.
They looked at each other in silence for several moments, without embarrassment. Each was assessing the other.
William Mainwaring finally got to his feet and brushed grass from his buckskin breeches. 'I must be going, wood nymph,' he said. 'I shall leave you alone to learn water.'
'Good-bye, sir,' she said, 'and thank you for the present. It is one of the most precious I have ever received.'
He laughed. 'Au revoir, Nell,' he said.
William Mainwaring found that he was still smiling as he walked through the woods in the direction of home. The letter from Hetherington lay in his pocket forgotten for the moment. What a delightful little creature!
