st, but above the level of the surrounding hills the air was bathed
in the sunset glow. The hush of evening was over all, the great cup of
the down absolutely desert; there were no birds, nor voices of birds;
not a twig snapped, not a leaf rustled. Imperceptibly the shadows
lengthened, faded with the light; and again behind the silence I
guessed at, rather than discerned, a preparatory, gathering music. So
finally, by twos and threes, they came to their assembling.

Once more I never saw them come. Out of the mist they drifted
together. There had been a moment when they were not there; there was
a moment when I saw them. I saw three of them together, two females
and a male. They formed a circle, facing inwards, their arms
intertwined. The pale colour of their garments, the grey tones in
their flesh were so perfectly in tune with the hazy light, that it
would have been impossible, I am certain, to have seen them at all at
a hundred yards' distance. I could not determine whether they were
conversing or not: if they were, it was without speech. I have never
heard an articulate sound from any one of them, and have no provable
reason for connecting the unvoiced music I have sometimes discerned
with any act of theirs. It has accompanied them, and may have
proceeded from them--but I don't know that. Of these three linked
together I remember that one of them threw back her head till she
faced the sky. She did not laugh, or seem to be laughing: there was no
sound. It was rather as if she was bathing her face in the light. She
threw her head back so far that I could see the gleam in her wild
eyes; her hair streamed downward, straight as a fall of water. The
other two regarded her, and the male presently withdrew one of his
arms from the circle and laid his hand upon her. She let it be so;
seemed not to notice.

Imperceptibly others had come about these three. If I took my eyes off
a group for a moment they were attracted to other groups or single
shapes. Some lay at ease on the sward, resting on elbow; some prone,
on both elbows; some seemed asleep, their heads on molehill pillows;
some sat huddling together, with their chins upon their knees; some
knelt face to face and held each other fondly; some were teasing, some
chasing others, winding in and out of the scattered groups. But
everything was doing in complete silence.

Now and again one, flying from another, would rise in the air, the
pursuer following. They skimmed, soare