For, on the morning of Thurston's first
meeting with the charming girl, when he turned his horse's head from the
arched gateway of Old Field Cottage and galloped off, "a haunting shape
and image gay" attended him.
It was that of beautiful Marian, with her blooming face and sunny hair,
and rounded roseate neck and bosom and arms, all softly, delicately
flushed with the pure glow of rich, luxuriant vitality, as she stood in
the sunlight, under the arch of azure morning-glories, with her graceful
arms raised in the act of binding up the vines.
At first this "image fair" was almost unthought of; he was scarcely
conscious of the haunting presence, or the life and light it gradually
diffused through his whole being. And when the revelation dawned upon
his intellect, he smiled to himself and wondered if, for the first time,
he was falling in love; and then he grew grave, and tried to banish the
dangerous thought. But when, day after day, amid all the business and
the pleasures of his life, the "shape" still pursued him, instead of
getting angry with it or growing weary of it, he opened his heart and
took it in, and made it at home, and set it upon a throne, where it
reigned supreme, diffusing delight over all his nature.
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