words sounded huskily as he spoke them; "we cannot stay here. Let us go lower, where there is no cloud to chill us by its presence."
She rose with him and clung to his arm, and together they entered the mist that filled the wood. It was like passing through a realm of spectres.
Suddenly Gerard halted. At his feet lay a snake, such as he had seen on the previous morning. Even the cloud did not hide its glittering colours.
"How strange, Eve"
"Come," she said, lightly stepping over it; and the serpent trailed its way into a tuft of thick herbage.
The mist grew denser and the air chillier. Gerard shuddered involuntarily. Eve seemed to find her way as if by instinct, and he no longer stumbled over gnarled roots, or tore his skin with impeding branches. They had quitted the beaten path, and were walking rapidly over a smooth and mossy sward. He had given himself up to her guidance.
The cloud seemed more impenetrable
