The remark was inaudible to the bride, who walked up and down the veranda, ever and anon glancing at the garden walks, to see if Gerald were in sight.  She had a little plan of hiding among the vines when she saw him coming, and peeping out suddenly as he approached.  She thought to herself she should look so pretty in the moonlight, that he would forget to chide her.  And certainly she was a pleasant vision.  Her fairy figure, enveloped in soft white folds of muslin, her delicate complexion shaded by curls so fair that they seemed a portion of the fleecy nubia, were so perfectly in unison with the mild radiance of the evening, that she seemed like an embodied portion of the moonlight.  Gerald absented himself so long that her little plan of surprising him had time to cool.  She paused more frequently in her promenade, and looked longer at the distant sparkle of the sea.  Turning to resume her walk, after one of these brief moments of contemplation, she happened to glance at the lattice-work of the veranda, and through one of its openings saw a large, dark eye watching her.  She started to run into the house, but upon second thought she called out, “Gerald, you rogue, why didn’t you speak to let me know you were there?” She darted toward the lattice, but the eye disappeared.  She tried to follow, but saw only a tall shadow gliding away behind the corner of the house.  She pursued, but found only a tremulous reflection of vines in the moonlight.  She kept on round the house, and into the garden, frequently calling out, “Gerald!  Gerald!” “Hark! hark!” she murmured to herself, as some far-off tones of “Toll the bell” floated through the air.  The ghostly moonlight, the strange, lonely place, and the sad, mysterious sounds made her a little afraid.  In a more agitated tone, she called Gerald again.  In obedience to her summons, she saw him coming toward her in the garden walk.  Forgetful of her momentary fear, she sprang toward him, exclaiming:  “Are you a wizard?  How did you get there, when two minutes ago you were peeping at me through the veranda lattice?”

“I haven’t been there,” he replied; “but why are you out here, Lily, when I particularly requested you to stay in the house till I came?”

“O, you were so long coming, that I grew tired of being alone.  The moonlight looked so inviting that I went out on the veranda to watch for you; and when I saw you looking at me through the lattice, I ran after you, and couldn’t find you.”

“I haven’t been near the lattice,” he replied.  “If you saw somebody looking at you, I presume it was one of the servants peeping at the new missis.”

“None of your tricks!” rejoined she, snapping her fingers at him playfully.  “It was your eye that I saw.  If it weren’t for making you vain, I would ask you whether your handsome eyes could be mistaken for the eyes of one of your negroes.  But I want you to go with me to that bower down there.”

“Not to-night, dearest,” said he.  “I will go with you to-morrow.”