olemnized our hearts. I looked at one of
the figures that were gliding along the upper galleries, though there
were many of them,--prisoners, who being condemned for lighter offences
than murder or forgery, were allowed to walk under the eye of a keeper.
I was conscious of passing them, but they only seemed to deepen the
gloom, like ravens and bats flapping their wings in a deserted tower.

As we came into the light of day, which, struggling through massy ridges
of darkness, burst between the grand and gloomy columns that supported
the fabric, I felt as if a great stone were rolling from my breast I
raised the veil, which I had drawn closely over my face, to inhale the
air that flowed from the world without I was coming out of darkness into
light, out of imprisonment into freedom, sunshine, and the breath of
heaven.

There were men traversing the vestibule in many directions; and Richard
hurried me on, that I might escape the gaze of curiosity or the stare of
impertinence. Against one of the pillars which we passed, a gentleman
was standing, whose figure was so striking as to attract my abstracted
eye. I had seen him before. I knew him instantaneously, though I had
only had a passing glimpse of him the morning we left the Falls. It was
the gentleman who had accosted Julian, and who had stamped himself so
indelibly on my memory. And now, as I came nearer, I was struck by a
resemblance in his air and features to our unhappy father. It is true
there was the kind of difference there is between a fallen spirit and an
angel of light; for the expression of the stranger's face was noble and
dignified, as if conscious that he still wore undefaced the image of his
Maker. He lifted his hat as we passed, with that graceful courtesy which
marks the gentleman, and I again noticed that the dark waves of his hair
were mingled with snow. It reminded me of those wreaths of frost I had
seen hanging from the evergreens of Grandison Place.

The singularity of the place, the earnestness of his gaze, and the
extraordinary attraction I felt towards him, brought the warm, bright
color to my cheeks, and I instinctively dropped the veil which I had
raised a moment before. As we entered the carriage, which had been kept
in waiting, the horses, high-spirited and impatient, threatened to break
loose from the driver's control,--when the stranger, coming rapidly
forward, stood at their heads till their transient rebellion was over.
It was but an ins