But her exhaustion became painfully apparent, and he hung over her, torn
between anxiety, remorse, and the pulsations of a frantic joy, hardly to
be concealed, even by him.

"Let me wake Augustina, and bring her down!"

"No--wait a little. I have been in a quarry all night, you see! That
isn't--resting!"

"I tried to direct you--I managed to telegraph to the station-master; but
it must have missed. I asked him to direct you to the inn."

"Oh, the inn!" She shuddered suddenly. "No, I couldn't go to the inn."

"Why--what frightened you?"

He sat down by her, speaking very gently, as one does to a child.

She was silent. His heart beat--his ear hungered for the next word.

She lifted her tired lids.

"My cousin was there--at the junction. I did not want him. I did not wish
to be with him; he had no right whatever to follow me. So I sent him to
the inn to ask--and I----"

"You----?"

"I hid myself in the quarry while he was gone. When he came back, he went
on over the sands, calling for me--perhaps he thought I was lost in one