seemed the drizzling mist grew colder, the sobbing wind more
pronounced in its prophetic wail. Athanasia rose suddenly. "Let
us go," she said; "the eternal feminine has spoiled it all."

The bayou flows as calmly, as darkly, as full of hidden passions
as ever. On a night years after, the moon was shining upon it
with a silvery tenderness that seemed brighter, more caressingly
lingering than anywhere within the old city. Behind, there rose
the spires and towers; before, only the reeds, green now, and
soft in their rustlings and whisperings for the future. False
reeds! They tell themselves of their happiness to be, and it all
ends in dry stalks and drizzling skies. The mocking-bird in the
fragrant orange grove sends out his night song, and blends it
with the cricket's chirp, as the blossoms of orange and magnolia
mingle their perfume with the earthy smell of a summer rain just
blown over. Perfect in its stillness, absolute in its beauty,
tenderly healing in its suggestion of peace, the night in its
clear-lighted, cloudless sweetness enfolds Athanasia, as she
stands on the levee and gazes down at the old log, now almost
hidden in the luxuriant grass.

"It was the eternal feminine that spoiled our dream that day as
it spoiled the after life, was it not?"

But the Bayou St. John did not answer. It merely gathered into
its silent bosom another broken-hearted romance, and flowed
dispassionately on its way.