Had I seen the woodman's axe touch its bark, I should have felt as if blood would stream from its venerable trunk.

A circular bench with a back formed of boughs woven in checker-work surrounded it, and at twilight the soft sofas in the drawing-room were left vacant for this rustic seat.
Edith loved it, and when she sat there with her crutches leaning against the rough back, whose gray tint subdued the bright lustre of her golden hair, I would throw myself on the grass at her feet and gaze upon her, as the embodiment of human loveliness.
One would suppose that I felt awkward and strange in the midst of such unaccustomed magnificence; but it was not so.

It seemed natural and right for me to be there.

I trod the soft, rich, velvety carpeting with a step as unembarrassed as when I traversed the grassy lawn.

I was as much at home among the splendors of art as the beauties of nature,--both seemed my birthright.
I felt the deepest, most unbounded gratitude for my benefactress; but there was nothing abject in it.