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CHAPTER XXXVIII.
"Lean on me, love!
Oh, such a bridal night befits not such a bride;
........but if truth
And tenderness can pay thee back for comfort,
Thou shall ne'er regret the time."
The Bridal Night.
Francesca's heart beat quick when she quitted the forest. She saw the square grey turret of the church, with the clear full moon just above it. Another moment and she would be at Evelyn's side. Still, as the little wicket swung behind her, she paused, all other thoughts lost in the impression produced by the solemn beauty of the scene. Large clouds were coming up vapidly upon the wind, gloomy ministers of fate, charged with the rain, the storm, and the thunder; and from one of these the moon had but just emerged, and her gentle light touched the silvery edges, but entered not the dense mass which rested on the air, black and immovable. Light vapours floated round in fantastic shapes, soft and snowy, and yielding easy passage to every luminous ray. The
