'I 've seen him at last; grant it be for the last time! That's my prayer,
in the name of the Virgin and Trinity,' said Guy. 'And now let's retrace
our steps: perchance we shall hunt up that bauble of yours, but I'm not
fit for mortal work this night longer.'

Burdened by their black encounter, the two passed again behind the
Cathedral. Farina's hungry glances devoured each footmark of their track.
Where the moon held no lantern for him, he went on his knees, and groped
for his lost treasure with a miser's eager patience of agony, drawing his
hand slowly over the stony kerb and between the interstices of the
thick-sown flints, like an acute-feeling worm. Despair grew heavy in his
breast. At every turning he invoked some good new saint to aid him, and
ran over all the propitiations his fancy could suggest and his religious
lore inspire. By-and-by they reached the head of the street where
Margarita dwelt. The moon was dipping down, and paler, as if touched with
a warning of dawn. Chill sighs from the open land passed through the
spaces of the city. On certain coloured gables and wood-crossed fronts,
the white light lingered; but mostly the houses were veiled in dusk, and
Gottlieb's house was confused in the twilight with those of his
neighbours, notwithstanding its greater stateliness and the old grandeur
of its timbered bulk. They determined to take up their position there
again, and paced on, Farina with his head below his shoulders, and Guy
nostril in air, as if uneasy in his sense of smell.

On the window-ledge of a fair-fitted domicile stood a flower-pot, a rude
earthen construction in the form of a river-barge, wherein grew some
valley lilies that drooped their white bells over the sides.

The Goshawk eyed them wistfully.