_Helen_. I shall see him again. That wild hope is wild no longer. To
doubt were wilder now. Ay, Fate must cross my way with a bold hand, to
snatch that good from me now. And yet,--alas, in the shadowy future it
lieth still, and a dark and treacherous realm is that! The joys that
blossom on its threshold are not ours--It may be, even now, darkness and
silence everlasting lie between us.
_Jan_. Hark--Hark!
_Helen_. What is it?
_Jan_. Hark!--There!--Do you hear nothing?
_Helen_. Distant voices?
_Jan_. Yes--
_Helen_. I do--
_Jan_. Once before,--'twas when I stood in the door below, I heard
something like this; but the breeze just then brought the sound of the
fall nearer, and drowned it. There it is!--Nearer. The other window,
Miss Helen.
_Helen_. From that hill it comes, does it not?
_Jan_. Yes--yes, I should think it did. Oh yes. There is a guard left
there--I had forgotten that. Mon Dieu! How white your lips are! Are you
afraid, Ma'amselle?
(_Helen stands gazing silently from the window_.)
_Jan_. There is no danger. It must have been those soldiers that we
heard,--or the cry of some wild animal roaming through yonder woods--it
might have been,--how many strange sounds we hear from them.
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