n the steps
of the Luxellian vault, and under the low-groined arches they had beheld
once before, lit up then as now. In the new niche of the crypt lay a
rather new coffin, which had lost some of its lustre, and a newer coffin
still, bright and untarnished in the slightest degree.

Beside the latter was the dark form of a man, kneeling on the damp
floor, his body flung across the coffin, his hands clasped, and his
whole frame seemingly given up in utter abandonment to grief. He was
still young--younger, perhaps, than Knight--and even now showed how
graceful was his figure and symmetrical his build. He murmured a prayer
half aloud, and was quite unconscious that two others were standing
within a few yards of him.

Knight and Stephen had advanced to where they once stood beside Elfride
on the day all three had met there, before she had herself gone down
into silence like her ancestors, and shut her bright blue eyes for ever.
Not until then did they see the kneeling figure in the dim light. Knight
instantly recognized the mourner as Lord Luxellian, the bereaved husband
of Elfride.

They felt themselves to be intruders. Knight pressed Stephen back, and
they silently withdrew as they had entered.

'Come away,' he said, in a broken voice. 'We have no right to be there.
Another stands before us--nearer to her than we!'

And side by side they both retraced their steps down the grey still
valley to Castle Boterel.

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