Her arms dropped from Love's neck, and she blushed as he exclaimed:
"So it's really you, Miss Chase?"
"Why, Franklin, you knew me at once, but your master looks on me as a stranger!" she answered, in surprise that grew boundless as the man returned, sadly:
"Alas! Miss Chase, you and all the world must ever remain strangers to my poor master now!"
The mulatto was a clever, well-educated person, and his words, strange as they sounded, carried the ring of truth.
"What can you mean?" she faltered.
"Miss Chase, where have you been? Have you heard nothing of Mr. Ellsworth's sad condition?" he asked, respectfully.
Still keeping her arm around Love's neck, the young girl answered, gently:
"I was kidnapped the night before my wedding, Franklin, and the next day I was told Mr. Ellsworth had been shot and was dying. Then I was taken very ill, and knew nothing more till I returned here to-day, when I was overjoyed to learn that he was still alive!"
The man looked at her with genuine sadness.