The blanketed figures went out to salute a blanketed sky.

Drizzling they returned, images of woefulness in various forms, including laughter's.

Alvan frankly declared himself the disappointed showman; he had hoped for his beloved to see the sight long loved by him of golden chariot and sun-steeds crossing the peaks and the lakes; and his disappointment became consternation on hearing Clotilde's English friend (after objection to his pagan clothing of the solemn reality of sunrise, which destroyed or minimized by too materially defining a grandeur that derived its essence from mystery, she thought) announce the hour for her departure.

He promised her a positive sunrise if she would delay.

Her child lay recovering from an illness in the town below, and she could not stay.