BOOK I.
PIERRE JUST EMERGING FROM HIS TEENS.
I.
There are some strange summer mornings in the country, when he who is
but a sojourner from the city shall early walk forth into the fields,
and be wonder-smitten with the trance-like aspect of the green and
golden world. Not a flower stirs; the trees forget to wave; the grass
itself seems to have ceased to grow; and all Nature, as if suddenly
be...