Not," I added,
virtuously, "that we approve of aristocracy."
"No, I understand that," said the Altrurian. "I shall hope to get your
point of view in this matter more distinctly by-and-by. As yet, I'm a
little vague about it."
"I think I can gradually make it clear to you," I returned.
II
We left the hotel, and I began to walk my friend across the meadow toward
the lake. I wished him to see the reflection of the afterglow in its still
waters, with the noble lines of the mountain-range that glassed itself
there; the effect is one of the greatest charms of that lovely region, the
sojourn of the sweetest summer in the world, and I am always impatient to
show it to strangers.
We climbed the meadow wall and passed through a stretch of woods to a path
leading down to the shore, and, as we loitered along in the tender gloom
of the forest, the music of the hermit-thrushes rang all round us like
crystal bells, like silver flutes, like the drip of fountains, like the
choiring of still-eyed cherubim. We stopped from time to time and
listened, while the shy birds sang unseen in their covert of shadows; but
we did not speak till we emerged from the trees and suddenly stood upon
the naked knoll overlooking the lake.
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