God bless you! We shall soon see you one of us.' 'Never, so help me God!' said the vicar; all the more fiercely because he was almost at that moment of the young man's opinion.
The vicar stepped out into the night.

The rain, which had given place during the afternoon to a bright sun and clear chilly evening, had returned with double fury.

The wind was sweeping and howling down the lonely streets, and lashed the rain into his face, while gray clouds were rushing past the moon like terrified ghosts across the awful void of the black heaven.

Above him gaunt poplars groaned and bent, like giants cowering from the wrath of Heaven, yet rooted by grim necessity to their place of torture.

The roar and tumult without him harmonised strangely with the discord within.