thing in particular, and the forms that hurried to and fro impressed
me only as shadows.

This apathy was suddenly interrupted. My eyes, by pure accident, fell
upon two figures whose movements at once excited my attention. They
stood upon the deck of the wharf-boat--not near the stage-plank, where
the torch cast its glare over the hurrying passengers, but in a remote
corner under the shadow of the awning. I could see them only in an
obscure light,--in fact, could scarce make out their forms, shrouded as
they were in dark cloaks--but the attitudes in which they stood, the
fact of their keeping thus apart in the most obscure quarter of the
boat, the apparent earnestness with which they were conversing--all led
me to conjecture that they were lovers. My heart, guided by the sweet
instinct of love, at once accepted this explanation, and looked for no
other.

"Yes--lovers! how happy! No--perhaps not so happy--it is a _parting_!
Some youth who makes a trip down to the city--perhaps some young clerk
or merchant, who goes to spend his winter there. What of that? He will
return in spring, again to press those delicate fingers, again to fold
that fair form in his arms, again to speak those tender words that will
sound all the sweeter after the long interval of silence.

"Happy youth! happy girl! Light is the misery of a parting like yours!
How easy to endure when compared with that violent separation which I
have experienced! Aurore!--Aurore!--Would that you were free! Would
that you were some high-born dame! Not that I should love you the
more--impossible--but then might I boldly woo, and freely win. Then I
might hope--but now, alas! this horrid gulf--this social abyss that
yawns between us. Well! it cannot separate souls. Our love shall
bridge it--Ha!"

"Hilloa, Mister! What's gwine wrong? Anybody fell overboard!"

I heeded not the rude interrogatory. A deeper pang absorbed my soul,
forcing from me the wild exclamation that had given the speaker cause.

The two forms parted--with a mutual pressure of the hand, with a kiss
they parted! The young man hastened across the staging. I did not
observe his face, as he passed under the light. I had taken no notice
of _him_, my eyes by some strange fascination remaining fixed upon
_her_. I was curious to observe how _she_ would act in this final
moment of leave-taking.

The planks were drawn aboard. The signal-bell sounded. I could
perceive that we were mov