! Wiped out! I
say, darling, this is going to be a disappointment."

Mrs. Boyson, however, was not so sure. The lovely "nocturne" of the
evening plain had passed into a Vision or Masque of Force that captured
the mind. High above the gulf rose the towers of the great works,
transformed by the surging fog and darkness into some piled and castled
fortress; a fortress of Science held by Intelligence. Lights were in the
towers, as of genii at their work; lights glimmered here and there on
the face of the farther cliff, as though to measure the vastness of the
gorge and of that resounding vacancy towards which they moved. In front,
the arch of the vast suspension bridge, pricked in light, crossed the
gulf, from nothingness to nothingness, like that sky bridge on which the
gods marched to Walhalla. Otherwise, no shape, no landmark; earth and
heaven had disappeared.

"Here we are at the hotel," said Boyson. "There, my dear,"--he pointed
ironically--"is the American Fall, and there--is the Canadian! Let me
introduce you to Niagara!"

They jumped out of the carriage, and while their bags were being carried
in they ran to the parapeted edge of the cliff in front of the hotel.
Niagara thundered in their ears; the spray of it beat upon their faces;
but of the two great Falls immediately in front of them they saw nothing
whatever. The fog, now cold and clammy, enwrapped them; even the bright
lights of the hotel, but a stone's throw distant, were barely visible;
and the carriage still standing at the steps had vanished.

Suddenly, some common impulse born of the moment and the scene--of its
inhuman ghostliness and grandeur--drew them to each other. Boyson threw
his arm round his young wife and pressed her to him, kissing her face
and hair, bedewed by the spray. She clung to him passionately, trembling
a little, as the roar deafened them and the fog swept round them.

* * * * *

As the Boysons lingered in the central hall of the hotel, reading some
letters which had been handed to them, a lady in black passed along the
gallery overhead and paused a moment to look at the new arrivals brought
by the evening train.

As she perceived Captain Boyson there was a quick, startled movement;
she bent a moment over the staircase, as though to make sure of his
identity, and then ran along the gallery to a room at the farther end.
As she opened the door a damp cold air streamed upon her, and the
thunder of th