The Shadow of a Sin

eze that murmured among the trees, rippling the green leaves and stirring the sleeping flowers. The lilies gleamed like pale sp

en a faint light in the room where Hyacinth Vaughan slept; it glimmered there only for a minute or two, and then disappeared. Soon afterward there appeared at the library window a pale, sweet, frightened face; the windo

ees, till Claude came to her; and her heart gave a great bo

lasping her hand in his,

She looked up at Claude's handsome, careless face, and began to un

ere is no need. Your hand trembles, and your fac

ve never been out at night before. Oh,

loomy cages were never made for bright birds like you

n station; the few lamps glimmered fitfully an

yacinth," he whispered; "I will get the tick

at seemed to be but a moment of time, yet was in reality over ten minutes, the train ran steaming into the station. One or two passengers alighted. Claude took her han

and the color fading even from her lips. She laid her hea

my darling, that al

htness to her eyes. They looked together from the carriage windows, watching the shining stars and the darkened earth,

een reached. There the passengers for London leave it, and await the arrival of the mai

said Claude, "and then, thank goodness, there w

d gold. Hyacinth looked pale and cold; the excitement, the fatigu

ll true to his determination that Hyacinth should not be seen, bade her to sit down again while he went to inquire at

he porters were no longer sleepy, but anxious. Then the rumor, whispered first with bated breath, grew-"An accident to t

cinth to know it-it would seem like an omen of misfortune to her. "Wh

n now and seven o'clo

g so unfortunate?" mutt

only twenty mi

wn here. How unfortunate that we should be detained so near home!" He went out to her: "You must not

xed. "Seven," she repeated-"and now it i

walk through the fields. I fancy we

ave often been to Leybr

down the quiet street; they saw a

tter than anywhere else," sa

hem; the rosy clouds parted, and the sun shone in the full lustre of its golden light; the trees, the hedges, the clover, were all impearled with dew-the drops lay

ng round. "Why, Claude, it is a thousand ti