'"Why?"
'"He conceals it from me."
'"And why?"
'"I know not; but oh, father, guide and counsel me, for I love him dearly, as he loves me."
'"You must meet him——"
'"Once again," she urged, piteously.
'"Never more, I meant to say—never more. But why say you once again?"
'"I have promised, on my soul's peril."
'"On your soul's peril indeed!" groaned the priest, in great tribulation; but, in defiance of all he could urge, Muriel, though she lived in an age of dark superstition, of omens and dread, inspired by her love, stole forth at the usual hour and entered the dell to meet her lover, for the last time, as it proved.
'Perhaps it was a prevision of this that made the wood seem so dark and gloomy, and even the knots and gnarled branches of the trees to look like those in the forest to Undine, fiendish faces and freakish limbs.