Page:Pontoppidan - Emanuel, or Children of the Soil (1896).djvu/188

 and shook hands with him, and thanked him heartily for his company.

Only Hansine took her red-haired friend by the arm as soon as the company broke up, and disappeared with her along the shore, to walk part of the way home with her to the "Gamekeeper's Lodge," as the country people complacently called the humble cottage provided for the overseers, in a little wood, in the southern corner of the parish.

A minutes later Emanuel stood on the top of a hill over which a path ran northwards to Veilby. He took off his broad-brimmed hat and covered his eyes with his hand, while he listened to the distant voices of the people who were singing as they wandered homewards.

The last notes died away. He was alone. Round about him lay the earth steeped in the silence of the desert. Over his head was the mighty dome of heaven with the pale light of the shimmering stars. Inexorable silence reigned, as if all nature were turned to stone.

He felt as if he had all at once been shut out of a shining Paradise.… He turned his unwilling eyes towards Veilby, where in the distance he saw the high-lying Parsonage garden looming