above the blanket pulled to her
chin. She spoke drowsily, in a voice thick with sleep:

"Hath the moon bewitched thee quite? In truth I think thee off thy wits
with love. All these nights hast thou been foolish, and waked me from my
sleep. Wilt not come to bed, thou cruel girl?"

Reluctantly Eldris undressed and got into bed beside Sosia, who slept
again, heavily, with stertorous breathings. The night breeze blew
freshly in the window; from the village dogs barked, and the distant
voices of men reached her. Somewhere in that press was he, in the midst
of the tide of hurrying life; and her heart went out to him.

So she slept, deeply. Once or twice she tried to waken, as one strives
to rouse from dreams; but the black swoon of sleep held her fast; body
and soul she was drowned in the soundless depths of oblivion. But
suddenly she was awake, startled, and somewhat dazed. Her first thought
was wonder as to what had waked her; her next, that it was not so late
as she had thought, for the noise at the ford still continued. More, it
seemed increased. And even in the first moment of full consciousness
which followed her waking daze, a sound grew out of all the noises of
the village; a long mellow note, like the note of a deep-toned
hunting-horn, vibrant yet steady, filling every cranny of the air. At
once she knew it was this that had awakened her. It hung a moment,
sweet, unearthly, haunting; and dropped back into an outburst of fierce
clamor that leaped at it as hounds leap at a stag. Eldris put out her
hand and shook Sosia.

"Sosia--waken! Dost hear that strange sound? What is it? Never have I
heard such a sound before."

She scrambled out of bed and went to the window, her feet shining white
on the rough floor. She saw other faces appear at other windows and at
doorways of dim hovels; there came black figures of men from lanes
between the houses, running from the river-ford. The sharp clatter of
the feet of a galloping horse clashed for a moment through other sounds.

"It is but a drunken brawl," said Sosia, sitting on the bed, a blanket
about her bare shoulders. Her tone was indifferent; drunken brawls were
no new things on Thorney. "Come back to bed."

"I think that something hath happened," said Eldris, and started to
dress. "Dress thyself quickly, Sosia, and let us go out to see. It is
not so late--the moon hath not left the window." This was true, although
the wide pool of light upon the floor had narrowed to a