-house yard, from point to point, wherever the best
observation might be had of each separate sidereal etching on the deep
blue. For a time the crowd casually watched them with a certain
good-natured ridicule of their absorption, and the telescope
maintained its interest to the successive wights who peered through at
the comet still splendidly ablaze despite the light of the gibbous
moon. The ranks of young people promenaded up and down the brick walks
and the grassy spaces. Elder gossips sat on the court-house steps, or
stood in groups, and discussed the questions of the day. Gradually
disintegration began. The clangor of the gate rose now and then as
homeward-bound parties passed through, becoming constantly more
frequent. Still the shifting back and forth of the thinning ranks of
the peripatetic youth went on, and laughter and talk resounded from
the court-house steps. At intervals the telescope was deserted; the
motionless trees were bright with the moon and glossy with the dew.
The voice of guard-dogs was now and again reverberated from the hills.
The languid sense of a late hour had dulled the pulses, and when
Justus Hoxon turned back to earth it was to an almost depopulated
scene, the realization of the approach of midnight, and the sight of
Theodosia sitting alone in the moonlight on the steps of the east door
of the court-house, waiting for him with a touching patience, as it
seemed to him at the moment.

"Air you-uns waitin' fur me, 'Dosia, all by yerse'f?" he demanded
hastily, with a contrite intonation.

"I _'pear_ to be all by myse'f," she said, with a playful feigning of
uncertainty, glancing about her. She gave a forced laugh, and the
constraint in her tone struck his attention.

"I 'lowed ez Wat war with ye," he said apologetically. "Air ye ready
ter go over ter yer cousin Anice's now?"

He was standing leaning against one of the columns of the portico, his
face half in the shadow of his hat and half in the moonlight.

She sat still upon the steps, looking up at him, her upturned eyes
taking an appealing expression from her lowly attitude. She was silent
for a moment, as if at a loss. Then suddenly her eyes fell.

"'Pears ter me ter be right comical ter hev ter remind _ye_ o' what
_I_ promised ter tell ye 'lection day," she said.

"Why, 'Dosia," he broke in vehemently, "I hev axed ye twice ter-day,
an' I didn't ax ye jes' now 'kase ye hed been hyar so long alone, an'
I wanted ter take ye ter yer