Elizabeth rose from her chair and walked to the window.
"You are not going?" cried Elsie.
"No; I only want to look. Be still!"
Elsie cowered down on the rug and muffled herself more closely in her shawl, lying quite still, with a sort of comfort in the feeling of warmth which began to creep over her.
Elizabeth pushed back the heavy curtains and looked out into the night. A stream of dim, silvery radiance shot into the room, and played like rippling water over the floor.
Elsie half started to her feet with a cry.
"What is that? What is that?"
"The moon is up," said Elizabeth, simply.
Elsie laid her head down again, Elizabeth stood leaning her hands on the window-sill, looking straight before her.
The moonlight was peculiarly clear, and millions of stars shone forth with the diamond radiance seen only in a frosty night. Every object was visible. Hoar frost shone up whitely from the crisp grass of the lawn, and long black shadows were cast downward by the trees, shaken like drapery when the wind tossed the branches up and down.