`` Where in this world , '' exclaimed Adam Forrester , despondingly , `` shall we build our temple of happiness ? '' `` Where in this world , indeed ? '' repeated Lilias Fay ; and , being faint and weary -- the more so by the heaviness of her heart -- the Lily drooped her head and sat down on the summit of a knoll , repeating , `` Where in this world shall we build our temple ? '' `` Ah ! have you already asked yourselves that question ? '' said their companion , his shaded features growing even gloomier with the smile that dwelt on them . `` Yet there is a place even in this world where ye may build it . '' While the old man spoke Adam Forrester and Lilias had carelessly thrown their eyes around , and perceived that the spot where they had chanced to pause possessed a quiet charm which was well enough adapted to their present mood of mind . It was a small rise of ground with a certain regularity of shape that had perhaps been bestowed by art , and a group of trees which almost surrounded it threw their pensive shadows across and far beyond , although some softened glory of the sunshine found its way there . The ancestral mansion wherein the lovers would dwell together appeared on one side , and the ivied church where they were to worship on another . Happening to cast their eyes on the ground , they smiled , yet with a sense of wonder , to see that a pale lily was growing at their feet . `` We will build our temple here , '' said they , simultaneously , and with an indescribable conviction that they had at last found the very spot . Yet while they uttered this exclamation the young man and the Lily turned an apprehensive glance at their dreary associate , deeming it hardly possible that some tale of earthly affliction should not make those precincts loathsome , as in every former case . The old man stood just behind them , so as to form the chief figure in the group , with his sable cloak muffling the lower part of his visage and his sombre hat overshadowing his brows . But he gave no word of dissent from their purpose , and an inscrutable smile was accepted by the lovers as a token that here had been no footprint of guilt or sorrow to desecrate the site of their temple of happiness . In a little time longer , while summer was still in its prime , the fairy-structure of the temple arose on the summit of the knoll amid the solemn shadows of the trees , yet often gladdened with bright sunshine . It was built of white marble , with slender and graceful pillars supporting a vaulted dome , and beneath the centre of this dome , upon a pedestal , was a slab of dark-veined marble on which books and music might be strewn . But there was a fantasy among the people of the neighborhood that the edifice was planned after an ancient mausoleum and was intended for a tomb , and that the central slab of dark-veined marble was to be inscribed with the names of buried ones . They doubted , too , whether the form of Lilias Fay could appertain to a creature of this earth , being so very delicate and growing every day more fragile , so that she looked as if the summer breeze should snatch her up and waft her heavenward . But still she watched the daily growth of the temple , and so did old Walter Gascoigne , who now made that spot his continual haunt , leaning whole hours together on his staff and giving as deep attention to the work as though it had been indeed a tomb .
In due time it was finished and a XXXXX appointed for a simple rite of dedication .
Fay Forrester Gascoigne Lilias centre daily day fairy-structure footprint hours