She reached the wicket at Mistover Knap, but before opening it sheturned and faced the heath once more. The form of Rainbarrow stoodabove the hills, and the moon stood above Rainbarrow. The air wascharged with silence and frost. The scene reminded Eustacia of acircumstance which till that moment she had totally forgotten. Shehad promised to meet Wildeve by the Barrow this very night at eight,to give a final answer to his pleading for an elopement.
She herself had fixed the evening and the hour. He had probably cometo the spot, waited there in the cold, and been greatly disappointed.
"Well, so much the better: it did not hurt him," she said serenely.Wildeve had at present the rayless outline of the sun through smokedglass, and she could say such things as that with the greatestfacility.
She remained deeply pondering; and Thomasin's winning manner towardsher cousin arose again upon Eustacia's mind.
"O that she had been married to Damon before this!" she said. "Andshe would if it hadn't been for me! If I had only known--if I had onlyknown!"
Eustacia once more lifted her deep stormy eyes to the moonlight, and,sighing that tragic sigh of hers which was so much like a shudder,entered the shadow of the roof. She threw off her trappings in theout-house, rolled them up, and went indoors to her chamber.