I cannot bear to think on the utter blank of the days to come; and yet how happy, how very happy, they might have been!"
Francesca's current of thought was at this moment interrupted by the sound of voices near—a circumstance too unusual not to excite surprise; and one step forward enabled her to see the speakers, though herself unseen. She paused breathless with amazement. The moonlight shone full on the little dell which lay just below the narrow path she was threading, and, falling directly on the face of the cavalier, revealed the features of him who had been so present to her meditation—the features of Evelyn; and, her hand clasped in his, her slender form bent timidly towards him in that attitude of shrinking yet earnest attention, which is bestowed but upon one subject, was Lucy Aylmer!
For a moment Francesca was motionless, and continued gazing on the two below. It was like the sensation of a dream, in which to move is to awaken. There he stood, the folds of his dark cloak rather adding to the effect of his graceful figure; the pale moon beam glittering on his white upraised brow—and the subdued colour which it gave suiting well with the softened expression of his countenance. So had she seen him stand amid
