The strange, weird effect of the sky seemed to have stolen into her eyes, making them shine with witch-like brilliancy,--the varied radiance flashing about her brought into strong relief the pureness of her profile, drawing as with a fine pencil the outlines of her noble forehead, sweet mouth, and rounded chin.

It touched the scarlet of her bodice, and brightened the quaint old silver clasps she wore at her waist and throat, till she seemed no longer an earthly being, but more like some fair wondering sprite from the legendary Norse kingdom of _Alfheim_, the "abode of the Luminous Genii." She was gazing upwards,--heavenwards,--and her expression was one of rapt and almost devotional intensity.

Thus she remained for some moments, motionless as the picture of an expectant angel painted by Raffaele or Correggio; then reluctantly and with a deep sigh she turned her eyes towards earth again.

In so doing she met the fixed and too visibly admiring gaze of her companion.

She started, and a wave of vivid color flushed her cheeks.