It was still early in the forenoon, being only ten o’clock, and she was intently engaged upon a miniature embroidered robe, when she heard the sound of horses’ feet approaching the house.
Not expecting that Alexander would return at this unusual hour of the day, or in this manner, and supposing that the noise arose from Leo exercising one of the horses from the stable, she paid no attention to the matter.
But the next moment she heard the sound of a man’s footsteps on the stairs, and the instant after the door was thrown open and Alexander entered the room.
With a cry of joy, she sprang up to meet him and fell upon his bosom.
“Why are you so glad to see me as all this comes to, my little Drusa?” he asked, remorsefully.
She could not answer him. In her excess of feeling, she could not speak. But if he had come back from an absence of two years instead of two weeks, her delight and excitement could not have been greater.
He kissed and embraced her very fondly—“as I should if she were my sister,” perhaps he said to himself. And then with gentle force he put her back in her chair, and seated himself in another one near her, and put his arm around her.
“Oh, Alick dear, I’m so glad—so glad to see you!” she cried, as soon as she recovered her voice.
“So am I to see you, little darling, especially when I see you looking so well. How pretty you are; how much you have improved!” he said, running his fingers through her glossy tresses, and gazing admiringly upon her bright face, with its flushed cheeks, parted lips, and eyes sparkling through tears of joy.
“Oh, Alick, I am so happy to have you back again!” she eagerly repeated.