Once, indeed, it had been otherwise, but that was before she had met him in the woods,—before she ceased to pray. Oh, that happy time when she had dared to pray! How she wished it would come back to her again; but it had drifted far away, and left a void as black as the night closing around her or the heavy thunder clouds rolling above her head.
Tightly her hands clenched each other as Herbert answered jestingly.
“She’s one of the religious ones, Milly is; writes me such good letters. I’ve one of them in my pocket now. She’s coming to see me; is actually on the way, so to-morrow night, or never, my bride you must be.”
“Miss Atherton coming here! What do you mean?” Anna asked, and Herbert replied,
“I mean, Mildred has always been in a fever to see Castlewild, and as she is intimate with Mrs. Judge Harcourt’s family, she is coming there on a visit. Will arrive to-morrow, her note said; and will expect to see me immediately after her arrival.”
Herbert’s influence over Anna was too great for her to attempt to stop him, so she offered no remonstrance, when he continued!
“I suppose Milly will cry a little, for I do believe she likes me, and always has; but I can’t help it. The match was agreed upon by our families when she was twelve and I fifteen. Of course I’m awfully sick of it, and have been ever since I knew you,” and Herbert’s lips touched the white brow where only half an hour before Adam Floyd’s had been.
Thicker, and blacker, grew the darkness around them, while the thunder was louder and nearer, and still they sat together, Anna hesitating, while Herbert urged upon her the necessity of going with him the following night, if ever.
Mildred in the neighborhood would be as formidable an obstacle to him as Adam was to Anna, while he feared the result of another interview between the affianced pair. With all his love for Anna he was not blind to the fact that the last one with whom she talked had the better chance of eventually winning. He could not lose her now, and he redoubled his powers of persuasion, until, forgetting everything, save the handsome youth beside her, the wealthy heir of Castlewild, Anna said to him,
“I will meet you at our gate when the village clock strikes one!” and as she said the words the woods were lighted up by a flash of lightning so fearfully bright and blinding that with a scream of terror she hid her face in her lap and stopped her ears to shut out the deafening roll of the thunder. The storm had burst in all its fury, and hurrying from the woods, Herbert half carried, half led the frightened Anna across the fields in the direction of her father’s door. Depositing her at the gate, he paused for an instant to whisper his parting words and then hastened rapidly on.