 did the woman; and her
articulation was but as another phrase of the same discourse as theirs. Thrown
out on the winds it became twined in with them, and with them it flew away.
    What she uttered was a lengthened sighing, apparently at something in her
mind which had led to her presence here. There was a spasmodic abandonment about
it as if, in allowing herself to utter the sound, the woman's brain had
authorized what it could not regulate. One point was evident in this; that she
had been existing in a suppressed state, and not in one of languor, or
stagnation.
    Far away down the valley the faint shine from the window of the inn still
lasted on; and a few additional moments proved that the window, or what was
within it, had more to do with the woman's sigh than had either her own actions
or the scene immediately around. She lifted her left hand, which held a closed
telescope. This she rapidly extended, as if she were well accustomed to the
operation, and raising it to her eye directed it towards the light beaming from
the inn.
    The handkerchief which had hooded her head was now a little thrown back, her
face being somewhat elevated. A profile was visible against the dull monochrome
of cloud around her; and it was as though side shadows from the features of
Sappho and Mrs. Siddons had converged upwards from the tomb to form an image
like neither but suggesting both. This, however, was mere superficiality. In
respect of character a face may make certain admissions by its outline; but it
fully confesses only in its changes. So much is this the case that what is
called the play of the features often helps more in understanding a man or woman
than the earnest labours of all the other members together. Thus the night
revealed little of her whose form it was embracing, for the mobile parts of her
countenance could not be seen.
    At last she gave up her spying attitude, closed the telescope, and turned to
the decaying embers. From these no appreciable beams now radiated, except when a
more than usually smart gust brushed over their faces and raised a fitful glow
which came and went like the blush of a girl. She stooped over the silent
circle, and selecting from the brands a piece of stick which bore the largest
live coal at its end, brought it to where she had been standing before.
    She held the brand to the ground, blowing the red coal with her mouth at the
same time; till it faintly illuminated the sod, and revealed a small object,
which turned
