Jasper Melrose insisted that he should take his horse, and Cecil accepted it very thankfully.
But before he left, he went to take a sorrowful look at the death-like face of Amber.
Oh, how changed, how pallid, how corpse-like it looked in the dim light. The dark lashes lay prone on the marble cheeks. There was no color on the lips that had uttered so many cruel falsehoods of sweet Violet. Cecil shuddered with grief, and pain, and pity, and heaved a deep sigh as he turned away.
CHAPTER XLIX.
WHAT GLORIOUS NEWS FOR A LOVER!
He threw himself into the saddle, and set out for Golden Willows and Bonnycastle.
The short winter afternoon was far spent, but the snow had ceased to fall, and was melting upon the ground. In the sky, the twilight was darkening over the blue, as he drew rein at Golden Willows.
They told him at the gate that Judge Camden was alive, but going fast, although the physician was doing all he could to save him. No one knew, as yet, the cause of his strange seizure.
Mrs. Shirley was in the sick-room when the message came to her that Cecil Grant was waiting to see her for a moment, on very important business.
The invalid, whose severe cramps had been subdued, lay still and death-like on the bed, but he caught the words and made a gesture to Mrs. Shirley:
“Tell Cecil Grant to come up here,” he said, weakly.