date, in this place and the other, after having taken all possible
precautions against fraud, they had received messages from the
dead--messages of which the purport was understood by none but
themselves--that they had seen with their eyes, in sufficient light,
the actual features of the dead whom they loved, that they had even
clasped their hands, and held for an instant the bodies of those whom
they had seen die with their own eyes, and buried.

* * * * *

When the ladies' footsteps had ceased to sound overhead, Laurie went
to the French window, opened it, and passed on to the lawn.

He was astonished at the warmth of the September night. The little
wind that had been chilly this afternoon had dropped with the coming
of the dark, and high overhead he could see the great masses of the
leaves motionless against the sky. He passed round the house, and
beneath the yews, and sat down on the garden bench.

It was darker here than outside on the lawn. Beneath his feet were the
soft needles from the trees, and above him, as he looked out, still
sunk in his thought, he could see the glimmer of a star or two between
the branches.

It was a fragrant, kindly night. From the hamlet of half a dozen
houses beyond the garden came no sound; and the house, too, was still
behind him. An illuminated window somewhere on the first floor went
out as he looked at it, like a soul leaving a body; once a sleepy bird
somewhere in the shrubbery chirped to its mate and was silent again.