How calm the aspect of the lawn and its clustering shrubs. Dimly
seen though they were through the leaves of the vines she had but
partially clipped, she felt the element of peace which comes with
perfect quiet, and was fain to forget for awhile the terrors it so
frequently conceals. The moon, which had been invisible up to this
moment, emerged from skurrying clouds as she quietly watched the
scene; and in an instant her peace was gone and all the thronging
difficulties of her position came rushing back upon her in full
force, as all the details of the scene, so mercifully hidden just
now, flashed again upon her vision.
Perched, as she was, in a window overlooking the lane, she had but
to lift her eyes from the double fence (that symbol of sad
seclusion) to light on the trees rising above that unspeakable
ravine, black with memories she felt strangely like forgetting to-
night. Beyond ... how it stood out on the bluff! it had never
seemed to stand out more threateningly! ... the bifurcated mass of
dismal ruin from which men had turned their eyes these many years
now! But the moon loved it; caressed it; dallied with it, lighting
up its toppling chimney and empty, staring gable. There, where the
black streak could be seen, she had stood with the judge in that
struggle of wills which had left its scars upon them both to this
very day. There, hidden but always seen by those who remembered
the traditions of the place, mouldered away the walls of that old
closet where the timorous, God-stricken suicide had breathed out
his soul.
Pages:
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134