with myself is listening to you. Be reassured: there
is nothing, but what your own excited fancy has
conjured: even the wind has ceased to sigh amongst
the leaves; the moon stands still, and her arrested
beam no longer draws the shadow on the dreamy
dial. Then, proceed, my love, for when you speak
you fill my ears with heaven, but when you pause
then opens the abyss."

"Yet listen; I hear it again:" she said; "it was
not fancy; no."

"What else? what can befall you, love, whilst I am
here?" he murmured.

"Nothing, I hope," she answered, falteringly.

"Then nothing dread."

"I dread to say it, yet I must: Good night."

"Already?" he demanded.

"All too long!" cried an imperious voice; and the
advocate stood before them.

"Amanda, ah, Amanda, Miss Macdonald," he con-
tinued, "is it thus you fool us? Go, bird, into your
cage. Nurse, take my lady in." And Amanda beheld
behind her the melancholy Mona, half shrouded in a
cloak covering her night attire.

Silently they both of them withdrew, and the
stranger was left alone with the advocate, who, lay-
ing his hand detectingly on the other's shoulder, thus
addressed him:

"Claude Montigny, I do not ask of you what brings
you here, for I have something overheard, and in
that something, all. Given the arc, the eye com-
pletes the perfect circle; furnished the angle and the
object's distance, and we can tell the dizzy altitude.
Mark me, sir. We climb with risk, but there is

[[44]]

p043 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p044w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p044a

v?