WYLDER'S HAJV1)
181
There was not much in this little speech, but it -was
spoken in a low, sweet voice; and Rachel looked down on
the ferns before her feet, as they walked on side by side,
not with a smile, but with a blush, and that beautiful look
of gratification so becoming and indescribable. Happy
that moment — that enchanted moment of oblivion and
illusion! But the fitful evening breeze came up through
Redman's Dell, with a gentle sweep over the autumnal
foliage. Sudden as a sigh, and cold; in her ear it sound-
ed like a whisper or a shudder, and she lifted up her eyes
and saw the darkening dell before her; and with a pang,
the dreadful sense of reality returned. She stopped, with
something almost wild in her look. But with an effort
she smiled, and said, with a little shiver, "The air has
grown quite chill, and the sun nearly set; we loitered,
Stanley and I, a great deal too long in the park, but I am
now at home, and I fear I have brought you much too far
out of your way already; good-bye." And she extended
her hand.
"You must not dismiss your escort here. I must see
you through the enchanted dell — it is only a step — and
then I shall return with a good conscience, like a worthy
knight, having done my devoir honestly."
She looked down the dell, with a dark and painful
glance, and then she said a few words of hesitating apolo-
gy and acquiescence, and in a few minutes more they
parted at the little wicket of Redman's Farm. They
shook hands. He had a few pleasant, lingering words to
say. She paused as he spoke at the other side of that
little garden door. She seemed to like those lingering
sentences — and hung upon them — and even smiled —-
but in her eyes there was a vague and melancholy plead-
ing— a wandering and unfathomable look that pained
him.