"How long is it since the moon was over Pelican Island?" was the question
which now pressed itself upon her again and again, and to which she found
an answer at every glance upward, for she had learned to estimate time by
the position of the stars.

Rarely was the silence of the night interrupted by the call of a human
being or the barking of a dog from the city, or even the hooting of an
owl at a still greater distance; but the farther the moon moved on above
her the fiercer grew the uproar in Ledscha's proud, cruelly wronged soul.
She felt offended, scorned, insulted, and at the same time defrauded of
the happiness which this night of the full moon contained for her. Or
had the demons who promised happiness meant something else in their
prediction than Hermon's love? Was she to owe the bliss they had
foretold to hate and pitiless retribution?

When the midnight hour had nearly arrived she prepared to depart, but
after she had already set her foot on the edge of the boat she returned
to the grassy seat. She would wait a little longer yet. Then there
would be nothing which could give Hermon a right to consideration; then
she might let loose upon him the avenging powers at her command.

Ledscha again gazed over the calm landscape, but in the wild tumult of
her heart she no longer distinguished the details upon which her eyes
rested. Doubtless she saw the light mists hovering like ghosts, or the
restless shades of the unburied dead, over the shining expanse before
her, and the filmy vapours that veiled the brightness of the stars, but
she had ceased to question the heavenly bodies about the time.

What did she care for the progress of the hours, since the constellation
of Charles's Wain showed her that it was past midnight?