Robin gazed with dismay and astonishment on the unprecedentedphysiognomy of the speaker. The forehead with its double prominence,the broad hooked nose, the shaggy eyebrows, and fiery eyes, were thosewhich he had noticed at the inn, but the man's complexion hadundergone a singular, or, more properly, a two-fold change. One sideof the face blazed an intense red, while the other was black asmidnight, the division line being in the broad bridge of the nose; anda mouth which seemed to extend from ear to ear was black or red, incontrast to the color of the cheek. The effect was as if twoindividual devils, a fiend of fire and a fiend of darkness, had unitedthemselves to form this infernal visage. The stranger grinned inRobin's face, muffled his parti-colored features, and was out of sightin a moment.
"Strange things we travellers see!" ejaculated Robin.
He seated himself, however, upon the steps of the church-door,resolving to wait the appointed time for his kinsman. A few momentswere consumed in philosophical speculations upon the species of manwho had just left him; but having settled this point shrewdly,rationally, and satisfactorily, he was compelled to look elsewhere forhis amusement. And first he threw his eyes along the street. It was ofmore respectable appearance than most of those into which he hadwandered, and the moon, creating, like the imaginative power, abeautiful strangeness in familiar objects, gave something of romanceto a scene that might not have possessed it in the light of day. Theirregular and often quaint architecture of the houses, some of whoseroofs were broken into numerous little peaks, while others ascended,steep and narrow, into a single point, and others again were square;the pure snow-white of some of their complexions, the aged darkness ofothers, and the thousand sparklings, reflected from brightsubstances in the walls of many; these matters engaged Robin'sattention for a while, and then began to grow wearisome. Next heendeavored to define the forms of distant objects, starting away, withalmost ghostly indistinctness, just as his eye appeared to grasp them;and finally he took a minute survey of an edifice which stood on theopposite side of the street, directly in front of the church-door,where he was stationed. It was a large, square mansion,distinguished from its neighbors by a balcony, which rested on tallpillars, and by an elaborate Gothic window, communicating therewith.
"Perhaps this is the very house I have been seeking," thoughtRobin.
Then he strove to speed away the time, by listening to a murmurwhich swept continually along the street, yet was scarcely audible,except to an unaccustomed ear like his; it was a low, dull, dreamysound, compounded of many noises, each of which was at too great adistance to be separately heard. Robin marvelled at this snore of asleeping town, and marvelled more whenever its continuity was brokenby now and then a distant shout, apparently loud where itoriginated. But altogether it was a sleep-inspiring sound, and, toshake off its drowsy influence, Robin arose, and climbed awindow-frame, that he might view the interior of the church. There themoonbeams came trembling in, and fell down upon the deserted pews, andextended along the quiet aisles. A fainter yet more awful radiance washovering around the pulpit, and one solitary ray had dared to restupon the opened page of the great Bible. Had nature, in that deephour, become a worshipper in the house which man had builded? Or wasthat heavenly light the visible sanctity of the place- visible becauseno earthly and impure feet were within the walls? The scene madeRobin's heart shiver with a sensation of loneliness stronger than hehad ever felt in the remotest depths of his native woods; so he turnedaway, and sat down again before the door. There were graves around thechurch, and now an uneasy thought obtruded into Robin's breast. Whatif the object of his search, which had been so often and sostrangely thwarted, were at the time mouldering in his shroud? What ifhis kinsman should glide through yonder gate, and nod and smile to himin dimly passing by?
"O that any breathing thing were here with me!" said Robin.
Recalling his thoughts from this uncomfortable track, he sentthem over forest, hill, and stream, and attempted to imagine howthat evening of ambiguity and weariness had been spent by his father'shousehold. He pictured them assembled at the door, beneath the tree,the great old tree, which had been spared for its huge twistedtrunk, and venerable shade, when a thousand leafy brethren fell.
There, at the going down of the summer sun, it was his father's customto perform domestic worship, that the neighbors might come and joinwith him like brothers of the family, and that the wayfaring man mightpause to drink at that fountain, and keep his heart pure by fresheningthe memory of home. Robin distinguished the seat of every individualof the little audience; he saw the good man in the midst, holdingthe Scriptures in the golden light that fell from the westernclouds; he beheld him close the book, and all rise up to pray. Heheard the old thanksgivings for daily mercies, the old supplicationsfor their continuance, to which he had so often listened in weariness,but which were now among his dear remembrances. He perceived theslight inequality of his father's voice when he came to speak of theabsent one; he noted how his mother turned her face to the broad andknotted trunk; how his elder brother scorned, because the beard wasrough upon his upper lip, to permit his features to be moved; howthe younger sister drew down a low hanging branch before her eyes; andhow the little one of all, whose sports had hitherto broken thedecorum of the scene, understood the prayer for her playmate, andburst into clamorous grief. Then he saw them go in at the door; andwhen Robin would have entered also, the latch tinkled into itsplace, and he was excluded from his home.
