Zaidee Author:Margaret) Oliphant Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. MAIDEN MEDITATIONS. The sun has risen again upon a cloudless summer-day, and has shone unweariedly all the morning and through the noon upon t... more »he glowing Thames. Boats have been passing upon the river, and a continual flush and glory of sunbeams has given animation to all the scene. The willows throw their shadows upon the water; the water, which since last night has somewhat retreated, makes playful rushes at their uncovered feet; under the acacia the wind blows cool and fresh, dropping the blossoms upon Zaidee's hair. Mary has just gone with her father and mother to the party of " distinguished people," for it is a summer daylight party, a dejefiner, which last night she anticipated so ruefully, and Zaidee has been left at home to receive Aunt Burton- shaw, who is to return with her son from Sylvo's " place " to-day. All by herself under the acacia, with the white blossoms dropping on her hair, Zaidee sits in her idle mood, her calm of heart and thought; behind her the great bow-window is open, and Mary's pretty bouquet lies on the marble step, where Mary dropped it in her haste. The room is vacant within, and the great silent mirror takes cognisance of every movement of that beautiful figure on the lawn, of every waving bend of the foliage above her, and every petal it sheds upon her head. Zaidee's mind is like the mirror, silent, open, calm, reflecting everything about her with a passive observation. The river flows through her dream, the sun shines in it, the willows rustle on the silver wave. Through the arch of those long drooping boughs glimpses of the opposite bank and of the sky come in, to connect the populated earth and the great heaven with this fairy scene. She is not doing anything. She wants her eyes, but she does not want her mind, in this ...« less