She glanced hurriedly around her, "To—to find me," she said incredulously.
"Sartain! That ez, I was goin' to ask about ye,—goin' to ask about ye at the convent."
"At the convent?" she echoed with a frightened amazement.
"Yes, why, Lordy Sade—don't you see? You thought I was dead, and I thought you was dead,—that's what's the matter. But I never reckoned that you'd think me dead until Chivers allowed that it must be so."
Her face whitened in the moonlight "Chivers?" she said blankly.
"In course; but nat'rally you don't know him, honey. He only saw you onc't. But it was along o' that, Sade, that he told me he reckoned you wasn't dead, and told me how to find you. He was mighty kind and consarned about it, and he even allowed I'd better slip off to you this very night."
"Chivers," she repeated, gazing at her husband with bloodless lips.
"Yes, an awful purty-spoken man. Ye'll have to get to know him Sade. He's here with some of his folks az hez got inter trouble—I'm forgettin' to tell ye. You see"—
"Yes, yes, yes!" she interrupted hysterically; "and this is the Mill?"
"Yes, lovey, the Mill—my mill—YOUR mill—the house I built for you, dear. I'd show it to you now, but you see, Sade, I'm out here standin' guard."