Addressing it "To Angus"-- she left it close under the lamp where the light might fall upon it.

Then she looked around her.

Everything was very quiet.

Charlie alone was restless--and sat on his tiny haunches, trembling nervously, refusing to eat, and watching her every movement.

She stooped suddenly and kissed him--then without hat or cloak, went out, closing the cottage door behind her.
What a night it was! What a scene of wild sky splendour! Overhead the moon, now at the full, raced through clouds of pearl-grey, lightening to milky whiteness, and the wind played among the trees as though with giant hands, bending them to and fro like reeds, and rustling through the foliage with a swishing sound like that of falling water.