to drive the four-in-hand down through the fog. Of course there was
a good deal of bustle and hurry and confusion--friends anxious about
the non-arrival of other friends and so forth--in the midst of which
Lionel said to his two companions,

"Dinner will be a long time yet. The ladies who have driven down will be
making themselves beautiful for another quarter of an hour. Suppose we
go out on the balcony, and see whether any of Miss Girond's statues are
visible."

They agreed to this, for they had not taken off their cloaks; so he led
them along the hall and round by a smaller passage to a door which he
opened; they got outside, and found themselves in the hushed, still
night. Below them, on the wide terrace, they could make out the wan,
gray, plaster pillars and pediments and statues among the jet-black
shrubs; but beyond that all was chaos; the river and the wooded valley
were shrouded in a dense mist, pierced only here and there by a small
orange ray--some distant window or lamp. They wandered down the wide
steps; they crossed to the parapet; they gazed into that great unknown
gulf, in which they could descry nothing but one or two spectral black
trees, their topmost branches coming up into the clearer air. Then they
walked along to the southern end of the terrace; and here they came in
sight of the moon--a far-distant world on fire it seemed to be,
especially when the sombre golden radiance touched a passing tag of
cloud and changed it into lurid smoke. All the side of the vast building
looking towards them was dark--save for one window that burned red.

"Is that where we dine?" asked Nina, as they returned.

"Oh, no," Lionel answered. "Our room is at the end of the passage by
which we came out--I suppose the shutters are closed. I fancy that is
the coffee-room."

"I am going to have a peep in," Mlle. Girond said, as they ascended the
steps again; and when they had reached the balcony she went along to the
window, leaving her companions behind, for they did not share in this
childish curiosity. But the next moment little Capitaine Crepin came
back, in a great state of excitement.

"Come, come, come!" she said, breathlessly. "Ah, the poor young
gentleman--all alone!--my heart feels for him--Mr. Moore, it is
piteous."

"Well, what have you discovered now?" said Lionel, indifferently, for he
was getting hungry.

"Come and see--come and see! All alone--no one to say a word--"

Lionel and Nina followed their