It might be
that Veranilda would not venture forth without speaking to Aurelia,
who might forbid the meeting; or, if she tried to steal out, she
might be detected and hindered; perhaps she would fear to pass under
the eyes of a watchman or other servant who might be in her way. He
stamped nervously, and turned to look for a moment in the outward
direction. This little villa stood on the edge of a declivity
falling towards the sea; a thicket of myrtles grew below. At the
distance of half a mile along the coast, beyond a hollow wooded with
ilex, rose a temple, which time and the hand of man had yet spared;
its whiteness glimmered against a sky whose cloudless dusk was
warming with a reflection of the daybreak. An influence in the scene
before him, something he neither understood nor tried to understand,
held him gazing longer than he supposed, and with a start he heard
his name spoken by the beloved voice. Close to him stood Veranilda.
She was cloaked and hooded, so that he could hardly see her face;
but her white hands were held out for his.
Heart to heart, mouth to mouth, they whispered.
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