"Despoina is here," she said, and blew out the light.
IV
It was intensely dark in the cup of the hills, but by the difference of a
tone it was just possible to make out where the sky began. Looking closer
yet, you could guess at a film of light, as if the rim of down absorbed
and reflected a caught radiance from the stars.
On a quiet night the stars seem to burn more fiercely, and on this night
you might have believed they gave you heat. There was no moon; but the sky
was illuminated by stars. Jupiter had rays like a sun, and Sirius lay low
down and glowed, now fiery, now green. A winged creature, crossing up the
valley, would pass unnoticed; but if it struck suddenly upwards for a
higher flight, above the hills into the upper air, you would see the light
upon its pinions, and even the glitter of its watchful eye.
There was no wind; the silence could be felt, throbbing about you. It was
past the hour when the creatures go hunting; the time when every breathing
thing submits to the same power. Men and women forgot each other and their
loves; foxes lay coiled in their earths. The shriek of the field-mouse
startled you no more, nor the swift dry rustle of the grass-snake.
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