lay gasping for breath, with only life enough left in me to wonder
whether I had fainted or not. Recovered at length from this exhausted
condition, I sat up, and rejoiced to observe that half the day--that
last miserable day--had already flown. Then the thoughts of the
approaching evening, and all the happiness it would bring, inspired me
with fresh zeal and strength, and, starting to my feet, and taking no
thought of my food, I picked up the ax and made a fresh onslaught on the
fallen tree. I had already accomplished more than a day's work, but the
fever in my blood and brain urged me on to the arduous task of lopping
off the huge branches; and my exertions did not cease until once more
the world, with everything on it, began revolving like a whirligig,
compelling me to desist and take a still longer rest. And sitting there
I thought only of Yoletta. How would she look after that long seclusion?
Pale, and sad too perhaps; and her sweet, soulful eyes--oh, would I now
see in them that new light for which I had watched and waited so long?

Then, while I thus mused, I heard, not far off, a slight rustling sound,
as of a hare startled at seeing me, and bounding away over the withered
leaves; and lifting up my eyes from the ground, I beheld Yoletta herself
hastening towards me, her face shining with joy. I sprang forward to
meet her, and in another moment she was locked in my arms. That one
moment of unspeakable happiness seemed to out-weigh a hundred times all
the misery I had endured. "Oh, my sweet darling--at last, at last, my
pain is ended!" I murmured, while pressing her again and again to my
heart, and kissing that dear face, which looked now so much thinner than
when I had last seen it.

She bent back her head, like Genevieve in the ballad, to look me in the
face, her eyes filled with tears--crystal, happy drops, which dimmed not
their brightness. But her face was pale, with a pensive pallor like that