Glittering on the skies nocturnal, Hide thine eye no more from me, Hide thine eye no more from me!”
The curtain was drawn aside, the window cautiously raised, and the outline of Edith’s beautiful head appeared dark and distinct against the light within. She instantly recognized him.
“You must go away, Mr. Birch,” came her voice in an anxious whisper out of the shadow. “Pray go away. You will wake up the people.”
Her words were audible enough, but they failed to convey any meaning to his excited mind. Once more his voice floated upward to her opened window:
“And I yearn to reach thy dwelling, Yearn to rise from earth’s fierce turmoil; Sweetest star upward to thee, Yearn to rise, bright star to thee.”
“Dear Mr. Birch,” she whispered once more in tones of distress. “Pray DO go away. Or perhaps,” she interrupted herself “—wait one moment and I will come down.”
Presently the front door was noiselessly opened, and Edith’s tall, lithe form, dressed in a white flowing dress, and with her blonde hair rolling loosely over her shoulders, appeared for an instant, and then again vanished. With one leap Halfdan sprang up the stairs and pushed through the half-opened door. Edith closed the door behind him, then with rapid steps led the way to the back parlor where the moon broke feebly through the bars of the closed shutters.
“Now Mr. Birch,” she said, seating herself upon a lounge, “you may explain to me what this unaccountable behavior of yours means. I should hardly think I had deserved to be treated in this way by you.”
Halfdan was utterly bewildered; a nervous fit of trembling ran through him, and he endeavored in vain to speak. He had been prepared for passionate reproaches, but this calm severity chilled him through, and he could only gasp and tremble, but could utter no word in his defense.
“I suppose you are aware,” continued Edith, in the same imperturbable manner, “that if I had not interrupted you, the policeman would have heard you, and you would have been arrested for street disturbance. Then to-morrow we should have seen it in all the newspapers, and I should have been the laughing-stock
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