On the morrow,
when inquiry would be made--and aunt Sophie would certainly be loud
in her inquiries--this friar would be able to give some testimony
respecting her.
She passed on altogether across the bridge, in order that she might
reach the spot she desired without observation--and perhaps also with
some halting idea that she might thus postpone the evil moment. The
figure of St John Nepomucene rested on the other balustrade of the
bridge, and she was minded to stand for a while under its shadow. Now,
at Prague it is the custom that they who pass over the bridge shall
always take the right-hand path as they go; and she, therefore, in
coming from the Kleinseite, had taken that opposite to the statue of
the saint. She had thought of this, and had told herself that she would
cross the roadway in the middle of the bridge; but at that moment the
moon was shining brightly: and then, too, the night was long. Why need
she be in a hurry?
At the further end of the bridge she stood a while in the shade of the
watch-tower, and looked anxiously around her.
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