ficed to give a sheen to the water beneath
her. The air was deliciously soft;--of that softness which produces
no sensation either of warmth or cold, but which just seems to touch
one with loving tenderness, as though the unseen spirits of the air
kissed one's forehead as they passed on their wings. The Rhine was
running at her feet, so near, that in the soft half light it seemed
as though she might step into its ripple. The Rhine was running
by with that delicious sound of rapidly moving waters, that fresh
refreshing gurgle of the river, which is so delicious to the ear at
all times. If you be talking, it wraps up your speech, keeping it for
yourselves, making it difficult neither to her who listens nor to him
who speaks. If you would sleep, it is of all lullabies the sweetest.
If you are alone and would think, it aids all your thoughts. If
you are alone, and, alas! would not think,--if thinking be too
painful,--it will dispel your sorrow, and give the comfort which
music alone can give. Alice felt that the air kissed her, that
the river sang for her its sweetest song, that the moon shone for
her with its softest light,--that light which lends the poetry of
half-developed beauty to everything that it touches. Why should she
leave it?

Nothing was said for some minutes after Kate's departure, and Alice
was beginning to shake from her that half feeling of danger which had
come over her. Vavasor had sat back in his chair, leaning against
the house, with his feet raised upon a stool; his arms were folded
across his breast, and he seemed to have divided himself between
his thoughts and his cigar. Alice was looking full upon the river,
and her thoughts had strayed away to her future home among John
Grey's flower-beds and shrubs; but the river, though it sang to her
pleasantly, seemed to sing a song of other things than such a home as
that,--a song full of mystery, as are all river songs when one tries
to understand their words.

"When are you to be married, Alice?" said George at last.

"Oh, George!" said she. "You ask me a question as though you were
putting a pistol to my ear."

"I'm sorry the question was so unpleasant."

"I didn't say that it was unpleasant; but you asked it so suddenly!
The truth is, I didn't expect you to speak at all just then. I
suppose I was thinking of something."

"But if it be not unpleasant,--when are you to be married?"

"I do not know. It is not fixed."

"But about when, I mean? Thi