She sympathized with us so, she never said a word when Leon sang: "Believe me, if all those endearing young charms, Which I gaze on so fondly to-day, Were to change by to-morrow, and fleet in my arms, Like fairy-gifts fading away, Thou wouldst still be adored, as this moment thou art, Let thy loveliness fade as it will, And around the dear ruin each wish of my heart Would entwine itself verdantly still--" while Miss Amelia drove from sight up the Groveville road.
As he sang Leon stretched out his arms after her vanishing form.

"I hope," he said, "that you caught that touching reference to 'the dear ruin,' and could anything be expressed more beautifully and poetically than that 'verdantly still ?'" I feel sorry for a snake.

I like hoptoads, owls, and shitepokes.

I envy a buzzard the way it can fly, and polecats are beautiful; but I never could get up any sort of feeling at all for Miss Amelia, whether she was birdlike or her true self.

So no one was any gladder than I when she was gone.
After that, spring came pushing until you felt shoved.