In half an hour he passed between two of the gigantic sentinels that guarded the entrance to a trail.

Here he paused to collect his thoughts.

The Woods were vast in extent, the trail dim and uncertain--at times apparently breaking off, or intersecting another trail as faint as itself.

Believing that Miss Nellie had diverged from the highway only as a momentary excursion into the shade, and that she would not dare to penetrate its more sombre and unknown recesses, he kept within sight of the skirting plain.

By degrees the sedate influence of the silent vaults seemed to depress him.