At the present moment there were no such patches; and the waters ran by, silent, black, in great volumes, and with unchecked rapid course.

It was only by pausing specially to listen to them that the passer-by could hear them as they glided smoothly round the piers of the bridge.

Nina did pause and did hear them.

They would have been almost less terrible to her, had the sound been rougher and louder.
On she went, very slowly.

The moon, she thought, had disappeared altogether before she reached the cross inlaid in the stone on the bridge-side, on which she was accustomed to lay her fingers, in order that she might share somewhat of the saint's power over the river.