Page 79 - Adventures in shadow-land

But all this only lasted for a few moments.

Then all at once Eva remembered the falling
star \ the warning which the violets had given her \

the blow, which, coming as it did from Aster’s
hand, had so deeply grieved her; her efforts to

detain him at her aide, which had all proved
useless; and how, after the boy had crept into

one of the crevices of the wall, declaring he went
there in scarch of his flower, she had picked up a
stone, which she now found she still held in her

hand, and marked the place. Then she felt re­
lieved, for she knew that this was the time when

Aster would be asleep, as he always was when the
moon was absent, and consequently be could not
move from the place into which he had crept.

She thought, therefore, that, whenever she chose,
she would find him, and, taking him again under

her care, carry him away from this barren and
stony waste.

Encouraged and relieved by this thought, she
did not look for Aster any longer, but went to a

little spring bubbling up between two rough
stones, and which was the only pleasant thing she
could see in this rocky place. She knelt down