Miette stated her opinions, with all a boy's confidence.
However, Silvere, clasping her round the knees, had by this time lifted her to the ground, and then they would walk on, side by side, their arms encircling each other's waist.

Though they were but children, fond of frolicsome play and chatter, and knew not even how to speak of love, yet they already partook of love's delight.

It sufficed them to press each other's hands.

Ignorant whither their feelings and their hearts were drifting, they did not seek to hide the blissful thrills which the slightest touch awoke.

Smiling, often wondering at the delight they experienced, they yielded unconsciously to the sweetness of new feelings even while talking, like a couple of schoolboys, of the magpies' nests which are so difficult to reach.
And as they talked they went down the silent path, between the piles of planks and the wall of the Jas-Meiffren.