"I took the leap into the sea. By floating and swimming I was half an hour afterward picked up by a fisherman, who brought me hither."
"And Edwin, his secretary?"
"Alas, I know not."
"Direful, dreadful news! Fitzroy, Fitzroy! oh that I had died ere this sad news of thy dishonour, perhaps thy death, had reached me! Merciful God! sustain me in this hour!"
She buried her face in her hands, and seemed overcome by grief.
"Nay, Kate, dearest Kate, I am here! Fitzroy is before you; it is your Rupert who clasps you to his heart. Speak! I am by you, and fold you in my arms!"
He cast off his fisherman's coat and bonnet as he spoke, and she looked up revived at his voice, and beheld, indeed, the face of him whom she had mourned as dead or lost to her for ever.
"Fitzroy!"
"Fitzroy, and none else, dearest Kate!"
"How could you put me to such a trial?" she cried, almost weeping on his shoulder.