"I will do it! He shall not go away! Oh! if I could once more meet
him! all would be reconciled on the instant."

Confident in her own mind that Edward had determined to go away from
the city in the morning, and fully resolved upon what she would do,
Esther threw herself upon the bed, and in snatches of uneasy slumber
passed the remainder of that dreadful night. At day-dawn she was up,
and making preparations for going to the boat to intercept her
husband.

"Be self-possessed, my dear niece," urged Mrs. Carlisle, in a voice
that trembled so she could scarcely speak.

Esther tried to reply, but, though her lips and tongue moved, there
was no utterance. Turning away, just as the sun threw his first rays
into her chamber window, she went down stairs, and her aunt, no
longer able to restrain herself, covered her face with her hands and
wept.

On the day before, Esther had laid her gloves on one of the parlour
mantels, and she went in to get them. It was so dark that she could
not see, and she, therefore, opened a window and pushed back one of
the shutters. As she did so, a sound between a sigh and a groan fell
upon her ear, and caused her to turn with a start. There lay her
husband, asleep upon one of the sofas! A wild cry that she could not
restrain burst from her lips, and, springing toward him, she threw
her arms about his neck as he arose, startled, from his recumbent
position.

An hour's reflection, alone in the room he had taken at the hotel,