The dark trees rustled solemnly as I stepped quickly yet softly along the familiar moss-grown path. The place was very still--sometimes the nightingales broke into a bubbling torrent of melody, and then were suddenly silent, as though overawed by the shadows of the heavy interlacing boughs, through which the moonlight flickered, casting strange and fantastic patterns on the ground. A cloud of lucciole broke from a thicket of laurel, and sparkled in the air like gems loosened from a queen's crown. Faint odors floated about me, shaken from orange boughs and trailing branches of white jasmine. I hastened on, my spirits rising higher the nearer I approached my destination. I was full of sweet anticipation and passionate longing--I yearned to clasp my beloved Nina in my arms--to see her lovely lustrous eyes looking fondly into mine--I was eager to shake Guido by the hand--and as for Stella, I knew the child would be in bed at that hour, but still, I thought, I must have her wakened to see me. I felt that my happiness would not be complete till I had kissed her little cherub face, and caressed those clustering curls of hers that were like spun gold. Hush--hush! What was that? I stopped in my rapid progress as though suddenly checked by an invisible hand. I listened with strained ears. That sound--was it not a rippling peal of gay sweet laughter? A shiver shook me from head to foot. It was my wife's laugh--I knew the silvery chime of it well! My heart sunk coldly--I paused irresolute. She could laugh then like that, while she thought me lying dead--dead and out of her reach forever! All at once I perceived the glimmer of a white robe through the trees; obeying my own impulse, I stepped softly aside--I hid behind a dense screen of foliage through which I could see without being seen. The clear laugh rang out once again on the stillness--its brightness pierced my brain like a sharp sword! She was happy--she was even merry--she wandered here in the moonlight joyous-hearted, while I--I had expected to find her close shut within her room, or else kneeling before the Mater Dolorosa in the little chapel, praying for my soul's rest, and mingling her prayers with her tears!