alluring grace! Youth seems younger in its slumber, and beauty more
beautiful, and purity more pure. Long and dark, the fringe of the
eyelash rested upon the white lids, and the freshness of the parting
pouted lips invited the sister kiss that wakened up the sleeper.

"Ah, lady," said Sibyll, parting her tresses from her dark blue eyes,
"you are here, you are safe!--blessed be the saints and our Lady! for
I had a dream in the night that startled and appalled me."

"And my dreams were all blithe and golden," said Anne. "What was
thine?"

"Methought you were asleep and in this chamber, and I not by your
side, but watching you at a little distance; and lo! a horrible
serpent glided from yon recess, and, crawling to your pillow, I heard
its hiss, and strove to come to your aid, but in vain; a spell seemed
to chain my limbs. At last I found voice, I cried aloud, I woke; and
mock me not, but I surely heard a parting footstep, and the low
grating of some sliding door."

"It was the dream's influence, enduring beyond the dream. I have
often felt it so,--nay, even last night; for I, too, dreamed of
another, dreamed that I stood by the altar with one far away, and when
I woke--for I woke also--it was long before I could believe it was thy
hand I held, and thine arm that embraced me."

The young friends rose, and their toilet was scarcely ended, when
again appeared in the chamber all the stateliness of retinue allotted
to the Lady Anne. Sibyll turned to depart. "And whither go you?"
asked Anne.