Note 78 — Chapter XII
Reading edition
This paragraph is materially changed from F of F—B. Clouds and darkness are substituted for starlight, silence for the sound of the wind. The weather here matches Mathilda’s mood. Four and a half lines of verse (which I have not been able to identify, though they sound Shelleyan—are they Mary’s own?) are omitted: of the stars she says,
the wind is in the tree But they are silent;—still they roll along Immeasurably distant; & the vault Built round by those white clouds, enormous clouds Still deepens its unfathomable depth.