In another moment, all through the sunny light that despite the shaded windows streamed through the very shade, she entered again with Starwood. He flew at me and sank upon the ground. I have seen women--many--weep, and some few men; but I have never seen, and may I never see! such weeping as he wept. Tears--as if tropic rains should drench our Northern gardens--seemed dissolving with his very life his gentle temperament. I could not rouse nor raise him. His sodden hair, his hands as damp as death, his dreadful sobs, his moans of misery, his very crushed and helpless attitude, appealed to me not in vain; for I felt at once it was the only thing to do for him that he should be suffered to weep till he was satisfied, or till he could weep no more. And yet his tears provoked not mine, but rather drove them inwards and froze them to my heart. Nor did Clara weep; but I could not absolutely say whether she had already wept or not,--for where other eyes grow dim, hers grew only brighter; and weeping--had she wept--had only cleared her heaven. We sat for hours in that room together,--that fair but dreadful room, its brilliant furniture unworn, its frescos delicate as any dream, its busts, its pictures, crowding calm lights and glorious colors, all fresh as the face of Nature, with home upon its every look; save only where the organ towered, and muffling in dark velvet its keys and pipes, reminded us that music had left home for heaven, and we might no more find it there! And again it was longed-for evening,--the twilight tarried not. It crept, it came, it fell upon the death-struck, woful valley. O blessed hour,--the repose alike of passion and of grief! O blessed heaven! to have softened the mystic change from day to darkness so that we can bear them both,--never so blessed as when the broken-hearted seek thy twilights and find refreshment in thy shades! At that hour we two alone stood together by the glorious grave. For the first time, as the sun descended, Starwood had left off weeping. I had myself put him in his bed, and rested beside him till he was asleep; then I had returned to Clara. She was wrapped in black, waiting for me. We went together without speaking, without signifying our intentions to each other; but we both took the same way, and stood, where I have said, together; and when we had kissed the ground she spoke. She had not spoken all the day,--most grave and serious had been her air; she yet looked more as a child that had lost its father than a widowed wife,--as if she had never been married, she struck me: an almost virgin air possessed her, an unserene reserve, for now her accents faltered. "I could not say to you till we were alone," she said,--"and we could not be alone to-day,--how much I thank you for coming; so many persons are to be here in a day or two, and I wish to consult with you." "I will see them all for you, I will arrange everything; but you are not going away?"