grey ruins, indicated that the sun had just fallen; and
through a vacant arch that overlooked them, alone in the
resplendent sky, glittered the twilight star. The hour, the
scene, the solemn stillness and the softening beauty,
repressed controversy, induced even silence. The last words
of the stranger lingered in the ear of Egremont; his musing
spirit was teeming with many thoughts, many emotions; when
from the Lady Chapel there rose the evening hymn to the
Virgin. A single voice; but tones of almost supernatural
sweetness; tender and solemn, yet flexible and thrilling.

Egremont started from his reverie. He would have spoken, but
he perceived that the elder of the strangers had risen from
his resting-place, and with downcast eyes and crossed arms,
was on his knees. The other remained standing in his former
posture.

The divine melody ceased; the elder stranger rose; the words
were on the lips of Egremont, that would have asked some
explanation of this sweet and holy mystery, when in the vacant
and star-lit arch on which his glance was fixed, he beheld a
female form. She was apparently in the habit of a Religious,
yet scarcely could be a nun, for her veil, if indeed it were a
veil, had fallen on her shoulders, and revealed her thick
tresses of long fair hair. The blush of deep emotion lingered
on a countenance, which though extremely young, was impressed
with a character of almost divine majesty; while her dark eyes
and long dark lashes, contrasting with the brightness of her
complexion and the luxuriance of her radiant locks, combined
to produce a beauty as rare as it is choice; and so strange,