 only came down to the edge of the water, and stood there, looking across;
they made no motion to enter the boat that Felix had left at the mooring-place.
Felix waved his hat to them; it was too far to call. They made no visible
response, and they presently turned away and walked along the shore.
    »Mr. Brand is not demonstrative,« said Felix. »He is never demonstrative to
me. He sits silent, with his chin in his hand, looking at me. Sometimes he looks
away. Your father tells me he is so eloquent; and I should like to hear him
talk. He looks like such a noble young man. But with me he will never talk. And
yet I am so fond of listening to brilliant imagery!«
    »He is very eloquent,« said Gertrude; »but he has no brilliant imagery. I
have heard him talk a great deal. I knew that when they saw us they would not
come over here.«
    »Ah, he is making la cour, as they say, to your sister? They desire to be
alone.«
    »No,« said Gertrude, gravely, »they have no such reason as that for being
alone.«
    »But why doesn't he make la cour to Charlotte?« Felix inquired. »She is so
pretty, so gentle, so good.«
    Gertrude glanced at him, and then she looked at the distantly-seen couple
they were discussing. Mr. Brand and Charlotte were walking side by side. They
might have been a pair of lovers, and yet they might not. »They think I should
not be here,« said Gertrude.
    »With me? I thought you didn't have those ideas.«
    »You don't understand. There are a great many things you don't understand.«
    »I understand my stupidity. But why, then, do not Charlotte and Mr. Brand,
who, as an elder sister and a clergyman, are free to walk about together, come
over and make me wiser by breaking up the unlawful interview into which I have
lured you?«
    »That is the last thing they would do,« said Gertrude.
    Felix stared at her a moment, with his lifted eyebrows. »Je n'y comprends
rien!« he exclaimed; then his eyes followed for a while the retreating figures
of this critical pair. »You may say what you please,« he declared; »it is
evident to me that your sister is not indifferent to her
