"It's the first kiss I ever gave," said he, and his own voice vibrated. "Are you angry? it shall be the last if you are."
"Oh, I'm not angry," faltered poor Cornelia; and then she felt, or seemed to feel, a force drawing her down—scarcely perceptible, yet strong as death. She bent her lovely glowing face, with its tearful eyes and fragrant breath, close down to Bressant's.
At that very moment, or even an incalculable instant before, the professor's voice was heard calling loudly from without:
"Come—come! be quick! you'll be too late!"
She rose and fled from the room; but it was too late, indeed.
CHAPTER XIV.
NURSING.
After seeing Cornelia off, Professor Valeyon bethought himself of Abbie; she must be wondering what had become of her late boarder, and he resolved to stop at the house, and give her an account of the accident. He had got some distance beyond the boarding-house when the idea occurred to him. Just as he was about to head Dolly round in the opposite direction, he discerned a figure beyond, beneath an umbrella, which looked very much like the person he was seeking. He drove on, and in a few minutes overtook her.
"Going up to the Parsonage?" cried the old gentleman, getting gallantly down into the mud. "Here, jump up into-the wagon; I want to tell you about your—boarder."