We were now by the large elm-tree that shaded the way-side, beneath whose boughs I had so often paused to gaze on the valley below.

Without speaking, he led me to this resting-place, and we both looked back, as wayfarers are wont to do when they stop in an ascending path.
Calmly the shadows rested on the landscape, softly yet darkly they rolled down the slope of the neighboring hills and the distant mountains.

In thin curlings, the gray smoke floated upwards and lay slumberously among the fleecy clouds.

Here and there a mansion, lifted above the rest, shed from its glowing windows the reflection of departing day.

Bright on the dusky gold of the west the evening-star shone and throbbed, like a pure love-thought in the heart of night; and, dimly glimmering above the horizon, the giant pen seemed writing the Mene Tekel of my clouded destiny on the palace walls of heaven.
As we thus stood, lifted above the valley, involved in shadows, silent and alone, I could hear the beating of my heart, louder and louder in the breathing stillness.
"Gabriella!" said Ernest, in a low voice, and that _master-chord_ which no hand but his had touched, thrilled at the sound.