The glorious stars in them were blurred as she answered with a fervour which seemed to me as more than earthly: "For ever! I swear it!" With one long kiss, and a straining in each others arms, which left me tingling for long after we had lost sight of each other, we parted.

I stood and watched her as her white figure, gliding through the deepening gloom, faded as the forest thickened.

It surely was no optical delusion or a phantom of the mind that her shrouded arm was raised as though in blessing or farewell before the darkness swallowed her up..