Holding her in a close clasp, he felt her quivering from head to foot.
"Sweetheart, don't tremble so. Trust me, darling, and love me, and no home in the wide universe will be so happy and blessed as ours. Ours! The word holds heaven. Are you cold, that you shiver so constantly? Come into the sunshine."
Pacing up and down the colonnade, Judge Kent watched them approaching. He looked worn, hunted, and a sickly pallor marked his usually florid face. Before Mr. Herriott could speak, he was startled by a strange hysterical sound from Eglah; not a cry, not a sob. As she looked at her father, her face lighted with a marvellous, yearning tenderness, and she sprang into his extended arms.
"Father, you will love me now! Kiss me, kiss me. Hold me tight—take me back to my place in your heart."
Only he could hear the low ripple of broken words, and his tears dripped on her face as he pressed his lips to hers.
"Herriott, what does it all mean?"
"That I am the happiest, proudest man on earth. Coming here to say good-bye to my sweetheart, I shall carry my wife away with me."
"But she cannot go to the North Pole, and—you may not survive the dangers."
"When I know she is waiting at home for me, do you suppose all the ice in Greenland could shut me away from her?"
"God bless my daughter! How shall I live without her?"