e hush of earth and air
Seemed the pause before a prayer."

The wind that had blown steadily for two days past from the
south-east, had gone down into some ocean lair; but the sullen
element refused to forget its late scourging, and occasionally a long
swelling billow dashed itself into froth against the stone piers of
the boat-house, and the cliffs which stood like a phantom fleet along
the southern bend of the beach, were fringed with a white girdle of
incessant breakers.

Far out from shore the rolling mass of water was darkly blue, but now
and then a wave broke over its neighbor, and in the distance the foam
flashed under moonshine like some reconnoitring Siren-face, peeping
landward for fresh victims; or as the samite-clad arm that Arthur and
Sir Bedivere saw rise above the mere to receive Excalibar.

Following the beckoning of those snowy hands, and listening to the low
musical monologue that sea uttered to shore, Dr. Grey started in the
direction of the terrace, whence he could see the whole trend of the
beetling coast, but some unaccountable impulse induced him to pause
and look back.

The dense shadow of the trees shut out from the spot where he stood
the golden radiance of the moon, but over the lawn it streamed in
almost unearthly splendor,--and there he saw some white object glide
swiftly towards the group of deodars. The first solution that occurred
to his mind was that Katie had fallen asleep, and Mrs. Gerome in her
delirium making her way out of the house, was seeking her favorite
walk; but a moment's reflection convinced him that she was too utterly
prostrated to cross the room, still less the grounds, and, resolved to
satisfy himself, he followed the moving object that retreated before
him.

Walking rapidly but stealthily in the shadow of the trees and
shrubbery, he soon ascertained that it was a woman's figure, and saw
that it stopped at Elsie's grave, and bent down to touch the
head-board. Creeping forward, he had approached within ten yards of
her, when his hat struck the lower limbs of a large acacia, and
startled a bird that uttered a cry of terror and darted out. The sound
caused the figure to turn her head, and catching a glimpse of Dr.
Grey, she ran under the dense boughs of the deodars, and disappeared.

He followed, and groped through the gloom, but when he emerged, no
living thing was visible; and, perplexed and curious, he stood still.

After some moments he heard a faint sound, a