Between the trees, the flowering alders seemed gleaming out of sight before him like the white skirts of maidens.

Here and there the ground was blue with violets.

Eugene picked some half mechanically, as he went along, and made a little nosegay, with some sprigs of alder.

He was half through the lane, and had just emerged from a clump of alders, when he saw Dorothy Fair coming.

She gave a start when she saw him appear with a great jostling of white branches, and made as if she would have fled; then she held up her head with gentle dignity and advanced, lifting her lady-skirts with dainty fingers on either side.