His high health and vitality had enabled him to pull through fast, and to-day he was out for the first time, looking pale and thin, his restless glances roving from side to side, seeking ever for one beautiful face so deeply loved, so cruelly lost.
And suddenly he encountered it—where least expected—in the garb and the trappings of wealth.
He gave a gasp like one dying, and clutched young Hill's arm in icy fingers.
The latter looked around, exclaiming:
"What is it, Jack, eh? Have we brought you too far in your weak state? Oh, I see, you're looking at the beauty! You're hard hit, aren't you? So am I! She's a stunner!"
At that moment the footman closed the door on Geraldine, and the carriage rolled away.
She did not look out of the window, or she would have seen Hawthorne—the lover over whom her fond heart was yearning—start forward with outstretched arms toward the carriage, crying, wildly:
"It is she! it is she! Stop the carriage, I say! I must speak to her one moment!"
But his friends restrained him on either side. They feared that he had suddenly gone daft.