Her first disappointment about her love is desolating her. She leans her head against the woodwork, and lifts her eyes to the vaguely-tinted sky. Thus, with face upturned, she drinks in the fair beauty of the night, and, as its beauty grows upon her, her sorrow deepens. "With how sad steps, O moon! thou climb'st the skies! How silently, and with how wan a face, Thou feel'st a lover's case! I read it in thy looks; thy languish'd grace, To me, that feel the like, thy state descries." As she watches the pale moon, Sidney's sad words return to her. Just now Diana is resting in a path of palest azure, whilst all around her clouds, silver-tinged, are lying out from her, trembling in mid-air. Great patches of moonlight lie upon the garden sward. One seems brighter than its fellows, and as her eyes slowly sink from heaven to earth they rest upon it, as though attracted unconsciously by its brilliancy. And, even as she looks, a shadow falls athwart it, and then a low, quick cry breaks from her lips. "What is it?" says Kit, scrambling to her knees. "Only Brian," says Monica, with a hastily-drawn breath. A rich color has rushed into her cheeks, her eyes are alight, her lips have curved themselves into a happy smile. "It's all right now, then, and I can go," says Kit, joyfully. "Go? To bed, you mean, darling?" "Yes, now I know you are _happy_," says Kit, tenderly; and then the sisters embrace, and presently Monica is alone, but for the shadow in the moonlight. "It is you, Monica?" says Brian, coming close beneath her window, and looking upwards. She leans out to him, her white gown gleaming softly in the moon's rays. "Oh, why venture out at this hour?" she says, nervously. Now he is here,--woman-like,--fears for his safety, forgotten before, arise in all their horror. "They may have followed you; they may----" "Come down to the balcony," he interrupts her, with a light laugh. "I want to talk to you. Nonsense, dear heart! I am as safe as a church. Who would touch me, with an angel like you near to protect me?" His shadow, as he moves away, may again be seen for an instant, before he turns the corner of the old house; and Monica, opening her door softly, runs lightly down the corridor and the staircase, and across the hall and the drawing-room floor until she reaches the balcony beyond, where she finds his arms awaiting her. "You have missed me all day?" he says, after a pause that to them has been divine. "Oh, Brian, what a day it has been!" she clings to him. "All these past hours have been full of horror. Whenever I thought of your danger last night, I seemed to grow cold and dead with fear; and then when the minutes slipped by, and still you never came to me, I began to picture _you_ as cold and dead, and then----Ah!" she clings still closer to him, and her voice fails her. "I never knew," she whispers, brokenly, "how well I loved you until I so nearly lost you. I could not live without you now."