At the same instant Ding Dong, hurled him aside. Seeing the flames, the fellow started for the cottage with André after him, but he had gone but a short distance, when he halted and lifted his arm.
A mournful procession was slowly crossing the open field in the light of the waning day and André, rigid, his head advanced, caught the flutter of a familiar dress, saw a deathlike face.
The locked doors and windows had deceived him. Believing the cottage deserted, he had sought to destroy the organ which, in his blindness, he thought recommended the inventor to Rachel's favour; and he had destroyed instead the object of his own devotion—his own love.
The flames leaping into the sky revealed all the impotence of that act of jealousy and revenge.
CHAPTER XII
LOVE CONFRONTS DESPAIR
"No, we might disturb her, and she appears to be resting quietly. In her case it's a little natural exhaustion. As for Mrs. Hart—the spine, I'm afraid. She rescued this one, I understand. Well, she paid the price. As for the young man, he couldn't have been in the water above half an hour. Yes, a tragedy."
The steps, which had merely paused at the door, passed on.
Annie sat up in the bed.
It was true then; that strangled awakening, that battle with the smoke, Rachel's voice faintly heard. In her dream—or what she had been striving to believe a dream—Rachel had saved her; and the dream was truth.