Estelle, having locked the parlor doors, sat at the front window, and, shielded from outside view by the closed Venetian blinds, gazed through their slats, watching the sea-coast, if haply she could catch one glimpse of the “one loved form.” How long and patiently she sat and waited for that single transient moment of painful joy! As the day waned, and the sun declined, and the lights and shadows changed, she sank into a kneeling posture before the window, and with her clasped hands resting upon its sill, and her chin leaned upon them, she continued to gaze through the bars out upon the darkening coast and upon the sea, still bright in the reflection of the last rays of the setting sun. At length, just as she was beginning to fear that she should not see him before the evening grew too dark for her to identify his form, her patience was rewarded. A party emerged from the woods off to her right, and foremost among them she recognized his well-known, commanding form, clothed in a hunting-suit of green, with the game-bag at his side, the fowling-piece across his shoulder, and two pointers at his feet. Behind him came the boy, the old negro, and the groom, all heavily laden with game. He paused upon the same spot, whereon in the morning he had parted with his shipmates, he paused and turned his fine face toward the house—toward the very window whereat she knelt and gazed! Oh! could he but have known who watched behind those green blinds!—but evidently he knew not—suspected not the near proximity of her whom he so eagerly sought, and who at this very moment, from behind those blinds, gazed upon him in such passionate love and prayerful sorrow. He called the old negro to his side, and selecting what seemed to be the best specimens from each bunch of game, tied them together, put them in the hands of Neptune, and pointed toward the house. Old Neptune touched his hat, and turned to come up the hill. And Lord Montressor continued his course down the steep, until he was lost to her sight. Then her strength utterly gave way! “It is over! it is over!” she cried, and sank swooning to the floor. When she recovered her consciousness it was quite dark—recollection slowly returned, bringing its accompaniment of anguish. She arose upon her elbow, passed her hand before her face to put away the trailing black tresses of her hair, and looked around. The moonlight gleaming through the slats of the closed shutters was the only object that attracted her attention. She went and opened them and sank down on the floor with her head resting as before upon the window-sill, gazing out at sea. There, on the moonlit waters, like some fair white-winged bird, floated the vessel that contained all she loved on earth. She could not choose but kneel there with her breaking heart, praying for him, gazing after him.