"Have been in sleep under the opiates of my physician, or at times delirious; but now, thanked be kind Heaven, and his judicious skill, all danger of fever is past."
"Three days and nights! Oh! madame, to how much inconvenience I must have put you."
"Say not so. To have saved your life is reward sufficient for my friend and me."
"Thanks, madame, thanks; not that I value life much, but for the sake of one I love dearly, and for the task I have to perform."
"One!—a lady, doubtless?" asked the younger, smiling.
"My mother!" replied Fawside, as his dark eyes flashed and suffused at the same moment!
"And your task is probably a pilgrimage?" continued she with the violet-blue eyes.
"Nay, lady, nay; no pilgrimage, but a behest full of danger and death, and inspired by a hate that seems at times to be a holy one—for the blood of a slain father inspires it."
"Madame," began the younger lady uneasily, "may it please your——"
"Stay!" exclaimed the other, interrupting the title by which she doubtless was about to be addressed;—and then they whispered together.