s about us, glooming
darkly through the night, were not the most cheerful of companions,
and when you add to this the soughing of the willows and the
flickering shadows which rose and fell over the face of the
meeting-house as the branches moved in the wind, you can understand
why I rather regretted the hitherto gloomy enough hour we were
accustomed to spend in the forest.

But Orrin seemed to regret nothing. He had seated himself where I knew
he would, on the steps of the meeting-house, and was gazing, with chin
sunk in his two hands, down the street where Juliet dwelt. I do not
think he expected anything to happen; I think he was only reckless and
sick with a longing he had not the power to repress, and I watched him
as long as I could for my own inner sickness and longing, and when I
could watch no longer I turned to the gnomish gravestones that were no
more motionless or silent than he.

Suddenly I felt myself shiver and start, and, turning, beheld him
standing erect, a black shadow against the moonlighted wall behind
him. He was still gazing down the street but no longer in apathetic
despair, but with quivering emotion visible in every line of his
trembling form. Reaching his side, I looked where he looked, and saw
Juliet--it must have been Juliet to arouse him so,--standing with some
companion at the gate in the wall that opens upon the street. The
next moment she and the person with her stepped into the street, and,
almost before we realized it, they began to move towards us, as if
drawn by some power in Orrin or myself, straight, straight to this
abode of death and cold moonbeams.

It was not late, but the streets were otherwise deserted, and we four
seemed to be alone in the whole world. Breathing with Orrin and almost
clasping his hand in my oneness with him, I watched and watched the
gliding approach of the two lovers, and knew not whether to be
startled or satisfied when I saw them cross to the churchyard and
enter where we had entered ourselves so short a time before. For us
all to meet, and meet here, seemed suddenly strangely natural, and I
hardly knew what Orrin meant when he grasped me forcibly by the arm
and drew me aside into the darkest of the dark shadows which lay in
the churchyard's farthest corner.

Not till I perceived Juliet and the Colonel halt in the moonlight did
I realize that we were nothing to them, and that it was not our
influence but some purpose or passion of their own which had