s old and
haggard, and thin, and grey, and very dirty; but there came a smile
over his face as he also recognised her. He could not speak to her, for
he had to take up a verse in the hymn, and drawl out the words which
were to set the crowd singing, and Nina had retired back again before
he was silent. But she knew that he had known her, and she almost felt
that she had found a friend who would be kind to her. On the morrow,
when inquiry would be made--and aunt Sophie would certainly be loud
in her inquiries--this friar would be able to give some testimony
respecting her.

She passed on altogether across the bridge, in order that she might
reach the spot she desired without observation--and perhaps also with
some halting idea that she might thus postpone the evil moment. The
figure of St John Nepomucene rested on the other balustrade of the
bridge, and she was minded to stand for a while under its shadow. Now,
at Prague it is the custom that they who pass over the bridge shall
always take the right-hand path as they go; and she, therefore, in
coming from the Kleinseite, had taken that opposite to the statue of
the saint. She had thought of this, and had told herself that she would
cross the roadway in the middle of the bridge; but at that moment the
moon was shining brightly: and then, too, the night was long. Why need
she be in a hurry?

At the further end of the bridge she stood a while in the shade of the
watch-tower, and looked anxiously around her. When last she had been
over in the Old Town, within a short distance of the spot where she now
stood, she had chanced to meet her lover. What if she should see him
now? She was sure that she would not speak to him. And yet she looked
very anxiously up the dark street, through the glimmer of the dull
lamps. First there came one man, and then another, and a third; and
she thought, as her eyes fell upon them, that the figure of each was
the figure of Anton Trendellsohn. But as they emerged from the darker
shadow into the light that was near, she saw that it was not so, and
she told herself that she was glad. If Anton were to come and find
her there, it might be that he would disturb her purpose. But yet she
looked again before she left the shadow of the tower. Now there was no
one passing in the street. There was no figure there to make her think
that her lover was coming either to save her or to disturb her.

Taking the pathway on the other side, she turned her face aga