I had dreamed of a moment like this in the golden reveries of romance, and imagined it a foretaste of heaven, but now I trembled and hesitated like the fearful fluttering spirit before the opening gates of paradise.

I dared not yield to the almost irresistible temptation.

No figures were gliding along the solitary paths, no steps were brushing away the dew-stars that had fallen from the sky.

We should be alone in the moonlight solitude; but the thoughts of Mrs.Linwood and of Edith would find us out.
"No, no!" I cried, shrinking from the gentle force that urged me forward; "do not ask me now.

It would be better to remain where we are.
Do you not think so ?" "Certainly, if you wish it," he said, and his voice had an altered tone, like that of a sweet instrument suddenly untuned; "but there is only one _now_, for those who fear to trust me, Gabriella." "To trust _you_,--oh you cannot, do not misunderstand me thus!" "Why else do you shrink, as if I were leading you to a path of thorns instead of one margined with flowers ?" "I fear the observations of the world, since the bitter lesson of the morning." "Your fear! You attach more value to the passing remarks of strangers, than the feelings of one who was beginning to believe he had found one pure votary of nature and of truth.