It is with a sense of almost violent relief that she closes the door of her own room behind her, and knows herself to be at last alone.
CHAPTER XVII.
"And vain desires, and hopes dismayed, And fears that cast the earth in shade, My heart did fret."
Night is waning! Dies pater, Father of Day, is making rapid strides across the heavens, creating havoc as he goes. Diana faints! the stars grow pale, flinging, as they die, a last soft glimmer across the sky.
Now and again a first call from the birds startles the drowsy air. The wood dove's coo, melancholy sweet—the cheep-cheep of the robin—the hoarse cry of the sturdy crow.
"A faint dawn breaks on yonder sedge, And broadens in that bed of weeds; A bright disk shows its radiant edge, All things bespeak the coming morn, Yet still it lingers."
As Lady Swansdown and Baltimore descend the stone steps that lead to the gardens beneath, only the swift rush of the tremulous breeze that stirs the branches betrays to them the fact that a new life is at hand.
"You are cold?" says Baltimore, noticing the quick shiver that runs through her.