"There!" said Uncle Reuben, placing the rigid form on the bed in the corner, and wiping the perspiration off his brow, "I had some trouble, strong as I am, in carrying him so far, through all this storm. She led me to the very spot," he said, with a sort of triumph, as he looked at Bertha; "and I found him lying bleeding and senseless on the ground."
"Who is he?" said Christie, for, with the dark hair falling over the blood-clotted face, the features were undistinguishable.
"That, I do not know, but some traveler, I imagine, who has been thrown from his horse, judging from the looks of his wounds. Get me some warm water and a sponge until I wash the blood off his face."
As Christie obeyed, something in the wounded stranger struck her, and with a sudden thrill she leaned against the wall and pressed her hands to her panting heart. Not perceiving her emotion, the man Reuben reverently lifted the dark, heavy masses of hair, and wiped the blood off his pale, handsome face. As if fascinated, Christie's eyes were fixed on those cold, rigid features, every one of which was indelibly imprinted on her heart; her eyes dilating, her lips parted, and breathless; her face deadly pale; her heart beating as tumultuously as though it would break from its prison and force its way to him. With a cry that resounded through the house—a cry that made even the maniac Bertha start in terror, she sprang forward, and clasped the cold form in her arms with a wild and passionate shriek.
"Willard! Willard!" she exclaimed, "Oh, Father in heaven! Willard!"
Transfixed with amazement, Reuben stood gazing upon her, unable to speak, while, with a hysterical laugh, she covered the cold, marble-like face with hot, burning, passionate kisses, still crying out at intervals that loved name.
"Willard! Willard! Willard!"
"So thee knows him, Christie?" said Uncle Reuben, as last, in a voice of intense astonishment.
She looked up, with another hysterical laugh, and then overtaxed nature gave way to a burst of blessed, soothing tears.
"Well, I am surprised!" slowly said Uncle Reuben.