A ringing at a bell now came upon Tobias's ear, and his colour went and came fitfully.
"You are still very weak, my poor boy," said the colonel, "but you are certainly much improved. Do you feel any confusion in your head now?"
"None at all, only when I think of Todd suddenly, ever it makes me feel cold and sick, and something seems to rush through my heart."
"Oh, that will go away. That is nothing. There, I will draw up the blind for you. The evening is coming, and the sky is overclouded. You can see better now, and there is one coming whom I know you wish to lose no sight of."
"I hear her foot upon the stairs," said Tobias.
"Do you?—It is more than I do."
"Ah, sir, the senses are sharpened, I think, by illness."
"Not so much as by love. Tobias! do you hear her footstep now?"
"Yes, and it is like music."
He had his head on one side in an attitude of listening; and then with joy sparkling from every feature of his face, he spoke again—