"At Preston!" said Emmeline, thoughtfully. "How long is it since you left him?"
"This is the ninth morning," replied Van Noost. "I reached London three days ago, and gave myself up to government. I looked honest, I suppose; or else they could not do without my statues any longer; for, after keeping me in prison two days, and examining me strictly, they let me go back to my own house upon the sole condition of showing myself to a messenger twice in every four-and-twenty hours."
"Nine days!" exclaimed Emmeline. "That is a long time. Has no news arrived from Preston since?"
Van Noost looked down upon the ground; and his good rosy countenance turned white with emotion.
"You have some tidings," said Emmeline, in a low tone. "Tell me what they are, I beseech you, sir. I can bear them, whatever they be. Speak quickly, or my heart will break."
"Alas, lady!" ejaculated Van Noost.
"He is dead," said Emmeline, in a tone wonderfully calm. "He has been killed in the battle!"
"No, no! Not so, indeed," replied Van Noost. "He is a prisoner, lady, but not dead. All the rest are prisoners too."
Before he ended, Emmeline's ear was deaf to his words. Fancy had so fully possessed her, only the moment before, with the idea of her husband's death, that when she heard he was still living, though a captive, the change from despair to hope was too sudden; her heart beat for a moment violently, then became still as if in death; and she sank upon the floor.
Poor Van Noost was shocked and terrified; he thought he had killed her; and he would fain have made his way through the window to give her help; but just at that moment the tall and stately form of Mrs. Culpepper appeared coming up the street; and, as soon as she saw him looking in at the window, she hurried her pace, asking him sharply--