When she had become quieter, she went to the Pagratians’ home. There she found the professor’s widow and children, and poor Nizam, prostrated by the dreadful tidings; and their grief was pitiful to see. When Mrs. Spencer appeared, her face transfigured by suffering, they all felt as if an angel of the Lord had come down among them. They prayed together for a long time, and rose from their knees almost happy in their thought that their beloved ones were with Jesus.
Archag had to stay at the Adana hospital three weeks before he was able to return to Aintab. Nejib, Aram and Garabed were told when he was expected, and went out to meet him.
“Poor Archag!” said Nejib. “What a sad way to come back! He went off so gayly.”
“Yes,” said Garabed. “I can hear him now talking with Boghos about a trip to Tarsus which they were planning to take when they left Adana. We must try to comfort him, for Dr. Mills told me he was very sad.”
But the reality exceeded their expectation, and they could hardly repress a cry of surprise when they saw Archag. His hair had turned entirely gray; there were dark circles around his eyes, and his mouth was disfigured by a badly-closed wound. His friends welcomed him with a warm grasp of the hand.
“We are so happy to see you again, dear Archag,” said Garabed. “You don’t know what anguish we have suffered. For several days we thought you must be dead, because the report had gone about that all the Aintablés had been massacred.”
“It seems to me like coming back from the abode of the dead, it was so frightful, and the scenes of bloodshed are before my eyes all the time. I can’t help thinking about it by day, and every night I dream of it, and am perfectly exhausted when I wake up.”
The poor lad was trembling as he spoke, and had to wipe the perspiration from his brow. Aram patted him on the shoulder.
“Courage, old man! Think of your parents, and of your sister who has lost everything; you will have to be the one to console her.”
Archag made no reply, and his friends, feeling constrained by his silence, stopped talking, too. When the carriage entered the college courtyard, it was immediately surrounded by the students, all waiting for the traveler and eager to show their sympathy. But Archag left them very soon, and went to the Pagratians’ cottage. A woman dressed in black was sitting by the door, and he ran to her and threw himself into her arms, sobbing. Brother and sister wept together long, and after their first grief was spent, Nizam took Archag into the house, where he told the story of that terrible night.