Ok so what happened was her cousin Mary was sitting by Mr.Oakley who was trying to engage her thoughts.Cause Mary had a swollen leg from her foot that had fallen into he fire at camp.Hopefully that helped you out!
I'd go with C) Analogy since it's comparing nature to liberty, which are two unalike things.
I think gaze would be the answer because when you gaze and something you dont look at it for a short period of time, glimpse and peek are both words for looking at something for a short period of time.