for a moment. They fell upon Archdale, who sat motionless, looking at
Katie. At that moment his mind, stung by jealousy, made one of those
maddened leaps against the slowness of the age that prophesied the
railroad and the telegraph by showing the necessity for them. The second
man who had been sent off to England the day that Archdale had told
Elizabeth of the misadventure of the first was clear in head and as
quick in movement as means of locomotion at that time permitted, but it
seemed to Archdale at that instant that the very sun had stood still in
the heavens to make the summer days run longer, and that the most
welcome certainty with such a messenger as had been chosen would come
too late. When he should be free, let rivals do their best; but now----.
He seemed to have lost himself and to be living in a dream of the girl,
as if her presence and her beauty and a sudden sense of distance from
her filled him with agony. Suddenly he stirred and his eyes met
Elizabeth's and fell. He turned away quickly and began to talk.

For the moment she had no power at all. She was pierced by a sharper
sense of her situation than had ever come to her before, and that had
been enough. She was one too many in the world. She must give place, and
she must not be long about it. A ringing was in her ears; a darkness was
around her. But she called back her forces with an effort; she must not
think until she should be alone. She turned back to Sir Temple, caught
his last words, and answered him in haste, beginning at random and going
on with a fluency which even he had not expected.

Colonel Pepperell, who was able to do more things at once than carry on
his dinner and a conversation with his neighbor, looked down hard at his
plate a moment and muttered under his breath, "Poor thing! Poor thing!"