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moonlight; then between hedges, over which they saw broad wan meadows
shrouded in a low-lying mist. They scarcely heeded whither they rode at
first, being only anxious to get away, turning once westward when the
spire of Chichester cathedral rose suddenly near them out of the dewy
night, pale and intricate and high. They rode, speaking little, just a
rare word now and then, at a turning, at a footfall, at a roughness in
the road.
She seemed to be too intent upon escape to give much thought to him,
but after the first tumult of the adventure, as flight passed into mere
steady ridin@@ his mind became an enormous appreciation of the position.
The night was a warm white silence save for the subtile running of their
chains. He looked sideways at her as she sat beside him with her ankles
gracefully ruling the treadles. Now the road turned westward, and she
was a dark grey outline against the shimmer of the moon; and now they
faced northwards, and the soft cold light passed caressingly over her
hair and touched her brow and cheek.
There is a magic quality in moonshine; it touches all that is sweet
and beautiful, and the rest of the night is hidden. It has created
the fairies, whom the sunlight kills, and fairyland rises again in our
hearts at the sight of it, the voices of the filmy route, and their
faint, soul-piercing melodies. By the moonlight every man, dull clod
though he be by day, tastes something of Endymion, takes something of
the youth and strength of Enidymion, and sees the dear white goddess
shining at him from his Lady's eyes. The firm substantial daylight
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