er to avoid meeting any one. Her
course now lay directly up the mountain-side. The round rock was a
famous bowlder known to picnic parties that frequented the spot in
summer to enjoy a view from its summit, and a luncheon under its shadow.
She had been there a dozen times; but could she find it in the night? In
vain, as she toiled upwards, she strained her eyes to see the huge dim
stone jutting out from the shadowy rocks and bushes.

At length a sudden light, faint and silvery, streamed down upon her. She
looked and saw the clouds parted, and below them the crescent moon
setting, like a cimeter of white flame withdrawn by an invisible hand
behind the vast shadowy summit of the mountain. Almost at the same
moment she discovered the object she sought. The rock was close before
her; and close upon her right was the grove which she herself had so
often helped to fill with singing and laughter. How little she felt like
either singing or laughing now!

She remembered--indeed, had she not remembered all the way?--that the
last time she visited the spot it was in company with Penn. Now she had
come to meet him again--how unmaidenly the act! In darkness, in
loneliness, far from the village and its twinkling lights, to meet an
attractive and a very good looking young man! What would the world say?
Virginia did not care what the world would say. But now she began to
question within herself, "What would Penn think?" and almost to shrink
from meeting him. Strong, however, in her own conscious purity of heart,
strong also in her confidence in him, she put behind her every unworthy
thought, and sought the shelter of the rock.

And there, after all her labors and fears, scratches in her flesh and
rents in her clothes,--there she was alone. Penn had not come. Perhaps
he would not come. It was by this time ten o'clock. What should she do?
Remain, hoping that he would yet fulfil his promise? or return the way
she came, unsatisfied, disheartened, weary, her heart and strength
sustained by no word of comfort from him, by no tidings from her father?

She waited. It was not long before her eager ear caught the sound of
footsteps. An active figure was coming along the edge of the grove. How
joyously her heart bounded! In order that Penn might not be too suddenly
surprised at finding her in Toby's place, she stepped out from the
shadow of the bowlder, and advanced to meet him. She shrank back again
as suddenly, fear curdling her blood.

Th