Suddenly while she leaned there her attention was caught by a sound below her window, a sound which brought with it a rush of memories which were a part of the past. Some one moved swiftly out from the shadows of the bushes and stood under her window and called to her softly by name. The quiet authority of that voice set her pulses beating rapidly, till the thudding of her heart sounded loudly in her ears. For a long moment she remained motionless, looking down through the shadowy moonlight upon a man’s upturned face, a strong determined face with purposeful eyes raised to meet her shrinking gaze.
Prudence half drew back, and put a hand over her breast with a quick involuntary movement; at the same moment the man below drew himself a foot or so nearer to her by grasping at the trellis against which the rose-bush was trained.
“If you don’t come down, I will come up to you,” Steele said.
“Oh! wait,” she cried.
She remained for awhile irresolute; then, as if in answer to an impatient movement from below, she said quietly:
“Please be cautious. I will join you in a minute.”
And the next moment the light of the moon was eclipsed and the stars paled to insignificance—or so it seemed to Steele—as her form vanished from above him, and he was alone in the windy darkness with the clouds trailing drearily across the face of the moon.