In the pale moonlight, which lent a wanness of its own to the delicate
face where thoughtful care already mingled with a winning grace and
loveliness of youth, the too bright eye, the spiritual head, the lips
that pressed each other with such high resolve and courage of the heart,
the slight figure, firm in its bearing, and yet so very weak, told their
silent tale; but told it only to the wind that rustled by. The night
crept on apace, the moon went down and when the sun had climbed into the
sky, and there was warmth in its cheerful beams, they laid them down to
sleep upon a bank hard by some water.
But Nell retained her grasp upon the old man's arm, and long after he
was slumbering soundly, watched him with untiring eyes. Fatigue stole
over her at last; her grasp relaxed, and they slept side by side. A
confusion of voices, mingling with her dreams, awoke her, and she
discovered a man of rough appearance standing over her, while his
companions were looking on from a canal-boat which had come close to the
bank while she was sleeping. The man spoke to Nell, asking what was the
matter, and where she and her grandfather were going. Nell faltered,
pointing at hazard toward the west--and upon the man inquiring if she
meant a certain town which he named, Nell, to avoid more questioning,
said "Yes, that was the place." After asking some other questions, he
mounted one of the horses towing the boat, which at once went on.
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