46. CHAPTER XLVI.
THE SUN BREAKS OUT.
Richard walked down St. Agnes-street, with a tranquil,
lydian step. At the gate of the Governor's, he saw Melicent
standing in the vine-wreathed piazza, where she had
come out to wait for him. She was dressed in her peculiar
blue, which she remembered Richard liked; and she was a
pure blue thought already, in Richard's imagination, and
looked as if her Guardian Angel had bathed her in the
azure of the sky, and the azure of Richard's feelings, and
placed her there on purpose to meet her old and good
beloved.
She received him with an affectionate smile, — a smile
that bared her teeth beautifully, but pensively, as if joy
still swam in the remembrance of a long sorrow; — a smile
that, descending, clove asunder her arms, and parted the
Doubt and the Fear that had hung over her being, and
turned them into silvery clouds, on the right hand and the
left, through which Richard passed to the brightness of her
spirit.
