In the foreground glowed the warm tints of the gardens.

Beyond the lawn, with its pyramidal pale-gold maples and velvety firs, sloped pastures dotted with cattle; and through a long glade the river widened like a lake under the silver light of September.

Lily did not want to join the circle about the tea-table.

They represented the future she had chosen, and she was content with it, but in no haste to anticipate its joys.

The certainty that she could marry Percy Gryce when she pleased had lifted a heavy load from her mind, and her money troubles were too recent for their removal not to leave a sense of relief which a less discerning intelligence might have taken for happiness.