the pressure of her hand on his arm, and
thought of the dark lustre of her eyes and those lips which he had only
once kissed on that drive through the moonlight. He smiled in the midst
of his horror, and yet he could scarcely breathe, so heavily did the
sultry atmosphere weigh upon his breast; without knowing what he did,
he repeated two lines of one of Rueckert's poems:

The taper's dim and flickering light
She has re-kindled with her smile--

So in happy wretchedness, forgetting where he was, he staggered through
the dense forest. He felt as if he were wandering through a region far
away from the world, where every thing that binds and separates human
beings, all strictly drawn lines of duty, were abolished and overgrown
by the wild luxuriance of the powers of nature, where a poor mortal
wanders aimlessly about, and so long as he remains in the enchanted
wilderness must give himself up to the sweet torture of hidden fires.

Several shots, which echoed in the distance, and the strange whining
yelp of the hounds suddenly roused him from this bewilderment. He
perceived that he was in danger of approaching within range of the
hunt. For one moment he thought how little was needed to reduce the
conflict in his mind to peace; a stray bullet--and all would be over.
But he felt no temptation to provoke this solution, far less could he
resolve to follow the track of human beings. He hastily bent his steps
in the opposite direction and then once more allowed his movements to
be directed by chance.

He had probably wandered to and fro for about an hour, when he entered
one of the numerous paths only wide enough to permit the passage of the
wood cutters' carts which intersected the forest in straight lines. He
was about to cross it, and to plunge into the thicket on the opposite
side, when a strange procession, approaching at a measured pace
scarcely a gun shot from the spot, made him pause, in spite of his
desire to shun the presence of man. First rode the little high
shouldered doctor, holding an eager conversation with a huntsman who
walked beside him. Behind them four peasants, who seemed to have been
acting as beaters, carried a litter, on which, lying upon coverlets
hastily rolled up into cushions, a stout figure was stretched, the
upper part of the body, despite the uncomfortable position, in constant
motion, the head turning first to the right and then to the left, and
the arms employed in eage