It was a great moment for Mr. Moffat; but for me all was confusion, dread, a veil of misty darkness, through which shone her face, marred by its ineffaceable scar, but calm as I had never expected to see it again in this life, and beautiful with a smile under which her deeply shaken and hardly conscious brother sank slowly back into his seat, amid a silence as profound as the hold she had immediately taken upon all hearts.

I say nominally, as the law relating to absolute silence was never actually enforced; and as long as the members amused themselves in a reasonably quiet manner, and without turning the place into a bear-garden, they were allowed to converse over their games of chess or draughts, and exchange their opinions on the news of the day.

The change in him, from talkativeness to utter silence, had grown horribly oppressive to the Colonel.

'When will you learn,' he said with a strange tone in his voice, which, though no one had been listening to us, made a sudden silence for a moment, it was so strange; it moved me like that glimmer of the blue sky in my dream, and roused all the sufferers round with an expectationthough I know not what.

"He made no answer," continued the narrator, "but taking me by the arm, in solemn silence, led me into the back parlour, where stood a chair in the centre of the room, isolated from the rest of the furniture: and pointing to it, said, with the profoundest reverence, in a low earnest tone.

" There was a little silence.

The curtain rose, and amidst thundering plaudits the welcome stranger advanced, in angles, to the front of the stage, and, as Sir Pertinax has it, "booed and booed and booed;" but greeting could not endure for ever: well justified curiosity assumed its station, and at length silence, almost breathless silence, reigned around, such as attended Irving in his Zoar, or Canning when he lately produced his budget.

And the novelist's voice answeredyet not at once, but after a brief silence.

A gloomy silence seemed to have settled down upon every one.

Where is the brigadier who will go?' "The brigadiers all sat in sullen silence, and Arnold, who had been brooding over his private grievances, suddenly jumped up.

" Miss Morriston checked the remark she had seemed about to make, and for a few minutes there was an awkward silence.

One by one they filed into the room, the door was shut, and there was a moment of awful silence.

All around was spread the stark loneliness of the place, and the unbroken silence.

In the grim silence it seemed strangely incongruous that the measured business of a ship's life should be going forward as usual.

Then, amid tense silence, he gave the word of commandQuick, March!while every officer felt his trigger.

There was a momentary silence, to which, probably, I owe my life; for, during it, I heard a quick patter of many feet, and, turning sharply, saw a troop of the creatures coming toward me, at a run.

It stops outside the doorthe door toward which I am being compelled.... There succeeds a short, intense silence; then there comes a sound.

The sounds of battle had died out at intervals, renewed now and again by an outcry of cheers, a quick fusillade, then more cheers, and then an ominous silence.

After walking on in thoughtful silence for a while, as though deeply pondering the striking character of a man whose great nature could thus at once unite the bereaved uncle with the sincere mourner for the dumb friend of his rainier days, Mr. TRACEY CLEWS asked whether suspicion yet pointed to any one?

" He rode on for a mile or two in moody silence, then he gave his shoulders an impatient shrug.

When he reached the doors of the senate house his sons and sons-in-law supported him and guided him into the house, while all the assembly observed a respectful silence.

" There was a painful silence for a time, broken by the major's suggestive cough.

There was a silence, oppressive on the Major's part, ecstatic as far as Patsy was concerned.

And with wide, eager eyes he smiled, and stretched his hands abroad, As if his dearest friend were welcoming him to his abode; Eternal silence sealed that wondrous smile as he cried "Thy face!

I agree with him in the latter opinion, and relapse into a dignified silence.