Like one in a dream he listened and looked. He heard Romeo exclaim in deep and passionate accents:
"'Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear,
That tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops—'"
And Juliet interrupted in those silver-sweet tones so strangely familiar to his ear:
"'Oh! swear not by the moon, th' inconstant moon,
That monthly changes in her circled orb,
Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.'"
With those words:
"Oh! swear not by the moon, th' inconstant moon,"
Juliet raised her eyes that had been downcast and fixed on her lover, and looked upward as if to gaze upon the fair orb of which she spoke.
In that moment her dark-blue eyes, shining like stars of the night, encountered the fixed and passionate gaze of the handsome man in the box above her. She started—it was not his dreaming fancy—it was too palpable to all—recovered herself with an effort, and went on in a voice that trembled in spite of her brave endeavor:
"'That monthly changes in her circled orb,
Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.'"
"Great God! It is Queenie herself! Do the dead come back from the grave? I must see her, speak to her!" exclaimed Captain Ernscliffe, in a passionate undertone, as he sprang up and turned toward the box door.