“Rolfe!”
He started from his reverie:—“What will you have, Earth?”
“Why, I have been talking to you for several minutes, and you hav'nt heard a word.”
“Indeed, Earth, my thoughts have been pretty constantly in the wigwam of the mother.”
“Your thoughts had better rest elsewhere, for from what I have gleaned from the mother, I now have a doubt, if the maiden lives, and if she does, she may not be the same we seek.”
This was perfectly startling to Rolfe, for the suggestion had not before entered his brain.
“How! what! what is the matter,” cried he;—and he made Earth again detail every circumstance of the conversation he had held with the mother.
Here were two additional sources of trouble, and harrowing were they to the soul of Rolfe. But his spirit was a sanguine one, and the examination only served more fully to confirm him in his opinion.
“Yes!” he cried, “she is the same, and she still lives!”
“I wish it may prove so,” said Earth.