“Oh! that I could see him!” cried Evaline, in broken accents. “Could I once more hear his voice, which hath so oft bade God bless me, methinks I could even die happy.”
“Sweet lady, talk not of dying, I prithee,” said Martha, in a faltering voice.
“Go to! she shall see him!” exclaimed Bernard. “I will about it straight.”
He turned away while he spoke, as though he would pass to the door. Ere he had taken a step forward, however, Evaline sprang after him, and, laying her hand on his arm, induced him to pause.
“Whither goest thou, Master Gray?” she asked, with deep earnestness.
Her trembling hand rested on his arm as tenderly as it might have clung to a brother’s. Her pale face, lit up with a sudden animation, was pushed round before his; and her eyes ran over his features with the most intense anxiety. A deep flush spread over his countenance, and, with a slight but abrupt effort, he threw off her grasp, and broke away.
“Anon, anon,” he said, in a thick voice.
Without looking round, or uttering a word more, he stepped hastily to the door, and passed out of the chamber.
After he had closed the door behind him, he resumed his progress, and proceeded down the stairs to the hall. Thence he pursued his way to the street.
On reaching the street, he pushed forward again, and did not abate his pace, which was remarkably quick and vigorous, till he had passed through Temple-bar. Here, though the road was more open, and the passers-by offered much less opposition to his progress, his pace gradually slackened; and he seemed to be lost in a maze of thought.