Publisher's Synopsis
It is not often that youth allows itself to feel undividedly happy: the sensation is toomuch the result of selection and elimination to be within reach of the awakening clutch onlife. But Kate Orme, for once, had yielded herself to happiness; letting it permeate everyfaculty as a spring rain soaks into a germinating meadow. There was nothing to account forthis sudden sense of beatitude; but was it not this precisely which made it so irresistible, sooverwhelming? There had been, within the last two months-since her engagement toDenis Peyton-no distinct addition to the sum of her happiness, and no possibility, shewould have affirmed, of adding perceptibly to a total already incalculable. Inwardly andoutwardly the conditions of her life were unchanged; but whereas, before, the air had beenfull of flitting wings, now they seemed to pause over her and she could trust herself to theirshelter.Many influences had combined to build up the centre of brooding peace in which shefound herself. Her nature answered to the finest vibrations, and at first her joy in lovinghad been too great not to bring with it a certain confusion, a readjusting of the wholescenery of life. She found herself in a new country, wherein he who had led her there wasleast able to be her guide. There were moments when she felt that the first stranger in thestreet could have interpreted her happiness for her more easily than Denis. Then, as hereye adapted itself, as the lines flowed into each other, opening deep vistas upon newhorizons, she began to enter into possession of her kingdom, to entertain the actual senseof its belonging to her. But she had never before felt that she also belonged to it; and thiswas the feeling which now came to complete her happiness, to give it the hallowing senseof permanence.
