"Then what shall we do?" cried Helen, in an agony, "he will be killed!"
"What is it, Mrs. Ticehurst?" asked Fanny, trembling all over. "Oh, what is it!"
But she took no notice and sat like a statue, only she breathed hard and heavily, and her hands twitched; as she looked toward my burning home.
"Silence!" she cried suddenly, though no one spoke. "There is somebody coming."
And the three of them looked into the darkness, in which there was a white figure moving rapidly.
"It is Elsie!" screamed Fanny joyfully; and Helen sprang from the buggy, and stood in the light, as Elsie exclaimed in wonder at Fanny's excited voice.
The two women stood face to face, looking in each other's eyes, and then Elsie, who for one moment had shown nothing but surprise, went white with scorn and anger. How glad I should have been to have seen her so, or to have learnt, even at that moment when I stood in the greatest peril I have ever known, that she had ridden over to save or help me, even though her acts but added a greater danger to those in which I already stood. For her deed and her look were the deed and look of a woman who loves and is jealous. But it might have seemed to me, had I been there, that Helen's coming had overbalanced the scale once more against me, and perhaps for the last time. I am glad I did not know that fear until it was only imagination, and the imaginary canceling of a series of events, that could place me again in such a situation.
The two women looked at each other, and then Elsie turned away.
"Stop, stop!" cried Helen; "what has happened? Where is Mr. Ticehurst?"
"What is that to you?" said Elsie cruelly, and with her eyes flaming.