Nora was leaning from the window, gazing breathlessly down the path.

"What is it, Nora, my dear? Don't lean so far out; you will fall! What
is it?"

"Oh, Hannah, he is coming! he is coming!"

"Who is coming, my darling? I see no one!" said the elder sister,
straining her eyes down the path.

"But I feel him coming! He is coming fast! He will be in sight
presently! There! what did I tell you? There he is!"

And truly at that moment Herman Brudenell advanced from the thicket and
walked rapidly up the path towards the hut.

Nora sank back in her seat, overcome, almost fainting.

Another moment and Herman Brudenell was in the room, clasping her form,
and sobbing:

"Nora! Nora, my beloved! my beautiful! you have been ill and I knew it
not! dying, and I knew it not! Oh! oh! oh!"

"Yes, but I am well, now that you are here!" gasped the girl, as she
thrilled and trembled with returning life. But the moment this
confession had been surprised from her she blushed fiery red to the very
tips of her ears and hid her face in the pillows of her chair.