The moonshine fell through the arching boughs and made a mosaic of silver light and clear-cut shadow for the unfriendly lovers to walk in . On either side was the hovering gloom of the woods , and around them was a great silence unstirred by wind or murmur . Midway in the lane Lucinda was attacked by a sentimental recollection . She thought of the last time Romney and she had walked home together through this very lane , from a party at `` young '' John 's . It had been moonlight then too , and -- Lucinda checked a sigh -- they had walked hand in hand . Just here , by the big gray beech , he had stopped her and kissed her . Lucinda wondered if he were thinking of it , too , and stole a look at him from under the lace border of her fascinator . But he was striding moodily along with his hands in his pockets , and his hat pulled down over his eyes , passing the old beech without a glance at it . Lucinda checked another sigh , gathered up an escaped flutter of voile , and marched on . Past the lane a range of three silvery harvest fields sloped down to Peter Penhallow 's brook -- a wide , shallow stream bridged over in the olden days by the mossy trunk of an ancient fallen tree . When Lucinda and Romney arrived at the brook they gazed at the brawling water blankly . Lucinda remembered that she must not speak to Romney just in time to prevent an exclamation of dismay . There was no tree ! There was no bridge of any kind over the brook ! Here was a predicament ! But before Lucinda could do more than despairingly ask herself what was to be done now , Romney answered -- not in words , but in deeds . He coolly picked Lucinda up in his arms , as if she had been a child instead of a full grown woman of no mean avoirdupois , and began to wade with her through the water . Lucinda gasped helplessly . She could not forbid him and she was so choked with rage over his presumption that she could not have spoken in any case . Then came the catastrophe .
Romney 's foot slipped on a treacherous round stone -- there was a tremendous splash -- and Romney and Lucinda Penhallow were sitting down in the middle XXXXX Peter Penhallow 's brook .
On at before by for from in of than through