No thought nor
reason in that, onward rush; only one vast, enveloping, incoherent,
tumultuous impulse--away! away! Away from dark walls into the open;
away from the old into the new; away from the usual into the you-
don't-know-what; away from "you must not" into "you may." The wild,
free, bright, heedless urge of Spring!
Behind their fragrant rampart they paused, for a second, to spin
about in a kind of mental and spiritual whirlpool. Some began
breaking off floral sprays to decorate hat-band or shirt-waist. But
Missy, feeling her responsibility as a leader, glanced back, through
leafy crevices, at those prison-windows open and ominously near.
"We mustn't stay here!" she admonished. "We'll get caught!"
As if an embodiment of warning, just then Mrs. Clifton emerged out
on her front porch; she looked as if she might be going to shout at
them. But Raymond waited to break off a lilac cluster for Missy. He
was so cool about it; it just showed how much he was like the Black
Prince--though of course no one would "understand" if you said such
a thing.
The fragrantly beplumed company sped across the green Clifton yard,
ruthlessly over the Clifton vegetable garden, to the comparative
retreat of Silver Street, beyond.
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