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After supper the Judge and his guests went out into the yard to

enjoy the evening, and seated themselves on benches of turf built

along the house wall. The whole company, in gloomy, quiet

attitudes, gazed at the sky, which seemed to grow lower and

narrower, and to approach the earth nearer and nearer, until

both, hiding beneath a dark veil, like lovers, began a mysterious

discourse, interpreting their feelings in the stifled sighs,

whispers, murmurs, and half-uttered words, of which the

marvellous music of the evening is composed.