"He loved me, and he sped away
Far o'er the raging sea,
To seek the gems of other lands,
And bring them all to me."
At that moment, with all external objects hidden from her perception she could almost fancy she could hear his voice as he had said to her—"My darling, I shall come back rich and prosperous, and we shall be happy."
Alas! how sadly had that dream ended. He who had escaped the perils of the deep—he who had successfully battled with the tempest, and all the perils by sea and by land incidental to the life he had embarked in, had returned miserably to perish, almost within hearing of her for whom he had adventured so much.
The thought was maddening!
"And I live!" she said; "I can live after that! Oh, Mark—Mark—I did not love you well enough, or I could not have existed so long after the horrible certainly of your fate has been revealed to me. They may say what they will to try to make me calmer and happier, but I know that he is Todd's victim."
After this she sat for a time in a kind of stupor, and it was during that interval that Todd arrived home.
There was no light in the shop but what at times came from a little flickering flame, that would splutter into a moment's brief existence in the fire; but Todd, as he glared through the upper portion of the half-glass door at a spot where he knew the blind did not prevent him, could just see Johanna thus sitting.