Onoe or twice during the meal, ha
found her eyes fastened on his face,
as ho was drawn on to speak on this
or that topic, as it was presented,
while one and another mingled in the
diaonmion, deferring to his opinions
as to those of a man who understood
himself.
The ice ones broken, he met her of
ten, but never ones had their hands
touched. He was admitted even in
to her circle now. He went only that
he might see her, listen to her voice.
With her, he never forgot the cold
night, the driving snow, the senseless
inanimate form, she had brongnt back
to life, and light, and conseionsneu.
He gave no name either to his pain
or his exquisite happiness of being
near her. He was in the maelstrom;
let it whirl him where it would.
The summer came, and on its wings
it brought the whisper that Miss
Hawthorne was to be married in the
autumn.
The day he heard it he went out,
as onoe before, to walk off the sharp
pang that made his former pain
seem nothing. Was it fate that, as
he turned into a path leading through
the woods, he descried ahead the
slight, willowy, graceful form he
knew but too well 7
She was coming toward him. In
another minute they must meet; but
even in that minute something came
between. There was a sudden rust
ling of the bushes. Ho heard a low
cry from her lips, as a large dog
sprang on to the path, his blood-shot
eyes and frothing lips, betraying his
madness. The creature sprang to
ward her, but the man was quicker.
He had thrown himself between them,
and grasped the dog firmly by the
throat.
