Mrs. Stewart had fallen asleep and he would not let me wake her , saying he needed nothing and felt like sleeping himself . I promised to come up again on the morrow and went out . It was dark in the hall , where no lamp had been lighted , but outside on the lawn the moonlight was bright as day . It was the clearest , whitest night I ever saw . I turned aside into the garden , meaning to cross it , and take the short way over the west meadow home . There was a long walk of rose bushes leading across the garden to a little gate on the further side ... the way Mr. Lawrence had been wont to take long ago when he went over the fields to woo Margaret . I went along it , enjoying the night . The bushes were white with roses , and the ground under my feet was all snowed over with their petals . The air was still and breezeless ; again I felt that sensation of waiting ... of expectancy . As I came up to the little gate I saw a young girl standing on the other side of it . She stood in the full moonlight and I saw her distinctly . She was tall and slight and her head was bare . I saw that her hair was a pale gold , shining somewhat strangely about her head as if catching the moonbeams . Her face was very lovely and her eyes large and dark . She was dressed in something white and softly shimmering , and in her hand she held a white rose ... a very large and perfect one . Even at the time I found myself wondering where she could have picked it . It was not a Woodlands rose . All the Woodlands roses were smaller and less double . She was a stranger to me , yet I felt that I had seen her or someone very like her before . Possibly she was one of Mr. Lawrence 's many nieces who might have come up to Woodlands upon hearing of his illness .
XXXXX I opened the gate I felt an odd chill of positive fear .
As about along at in into on over that with