anything I knew, she was married again.

The early dinner-hour at Joe's left me abundance of time to walk over to the old spot before dark.

A cold silvery mist had veiled the afternoon, and the moon was not yet up to scatter it. But, the stars were shining beyond the mist, and the moon was coming, and the evening was not dark. I could trace out where every part of the old house had been, and where the brewery (酿酒厂) had been, and where the gates, and where the casks (木桶). I had done so, and was looking along the desolate (荒凉的) garden- walk, when I saw a solitary (孤独的) figure in it.

The figure showed itself aware of me, as I advanced. It had been moving towards me, but it stood still. As I drew nearer, I saw it to be the figure of a woman. As I drew nearer yet, it was about to turn away, when it stopped, and let me come up with it. Then, it faltered (支吾地说) as if much surprised, and uttered my name, and I cried out:

`Estella!'

`I am greatly changed. I wonder you know me.'

The freshness of her beauty was indeed gone, but its indescribable majesty and its indescribable charm remained. Those attractions in it, I had seen before; what I had never seen before, was the saddened softened light of the once proud eyes; what I had never felt before, was the friendly touch of the once insensible hand.

We sat down on a bench that was near, and I said, `After so many years, it is strange that we should thus meet again, Estella, here where our first meeting was! Do you often come back?'

`I have never been here since.'

`Nor I.'

`I have very often hoped and intended to come back, but have been prevented by many circumstances. Poor, poor old place!'

The silvery mist was touched with the first rays of the moon- light, and the same rays touched the tears that dropped from her eyes. Not knowing that I saw them, and setting herself to get the better of them, she said quietly:

`Were you wondering, as you walked along, how it came to be left in this condition?'

`Yes, Estella.'

`The ground belongs to me. It is the only possession I have not relinquished. Everything else has gone from me, little by little, but I have kept this. It was the subject of the only determined resistance I made in all the wretched years.'

`Is it to be built on?'

`At last it is. I came here to take leave of it before its change. And you,' she said, in a voice of touching interest to a wanderer, `you live abroad still?'

`Still.'

`And do well, I am sure?'

`I work pretty hard for a sufficient living, and therefore -- Yes, I do well.'

`I have often thought of you,' said Estella.

`Have you?'

`Of late, very often. There was a long hard time when I kept far from me, the