but the darkness.

She sprang up and began to walk to and fro.

"If he does not come to-night, something has happened. I know, I
know, I know! Something is wrong. My heart is not mistaken. Oh, if
anything were to happen to HIM! I must not think of it! I have
borne many things; but THAT! I must not think of it!"

She sank into her chair with her ear strained toward the porch
below. For a long time there was no sound. Then she heard the noise
of heavy boots--a tapping of the toes against the pillars, to knock
off the snow, and then the slow creaking of soles across the frozen
boards. She started up. "It is some one else," she cried, wringing
her hands. "Something has happened to him."

She stopped still in the middle of the room, her arms dropped at
her sides, her eyes stretched wide.

The house girl's steps were heard running upstairs. Gabriella
jerked the door open in her face.

"What is the matter?" she cried.

A negro man had come with a message for her. The girl looked
frightened.

Gabriella ran past her down into the hall. "What is the matter?"
she asked.