With a sigh Claudia turned and crossed the hall and entered the "parlor-chamber," as the large bedroom adjoining the morning room was called.
Ruth was hanging the last dresses in the wardrobe, and Jim was shouldering the last empty trunk to take it away.
"I have left out the silver gray glace, for you to wear this evening, if you please, my lady," said Ruth, indicating the dress that lay upon the bed.
"That will do, Ruth," answered her mistress, whose thoughts were now not on dresses, but on that time when Ishmael, for her sake, lay wounded, bleeding, and almost dying on that very bed.
CHAPTER IX.
HOLIDAY.
Ha! like a kind hand on my brow
Comes this fresh breeze.
Cooling its dull and feverish glow,
While through my being seems to flow
She breath of a new life—the healing of the seas.
Good-by to pain and care! I take
Mine ease to-day;
Here where these sunny waters break,
And ripples this keen breeze. I shake
All burdens from the heart, all weary thoughts away.
With every nerve, vein, and artery throbbing with excitement Ishmael hurried away from the house that contained Claudia.
The solitary walk through the thick woods calmed his emotion before he reached Woodside.