With a long, quivering sigh she whispered, "It is."
"Let me look at your face once more," said Glynn in a low intense tone. "Don't you know you may trust me?"
"It is not for myself I fear," she said in the same hushed, frightened voice, as she yielded to the movement by which he drew her under a lamp; and loosening her veil, she lifted it, raising her eyes with their well-remembered expression of thoughtful candor to his. How lovely they were! With what rapture Glynn read in them the confirmation of her assurance that she was the same Elsie he had loved and lost. But she was changed; the sweet eyes were unutterably sad, and the delicate cheek was less rounded. The soft lips were pale, and quivered nervously, and the hand he still held was thinner. She seemed unable to suppress the excessive trembling that had seized her. Glynn's whole soul went out to her in love and trust; he could hardly resist the impulse to clasp her to his heart, to shelter her against all ill in his bosom. But might she not be the wife of another man? Anything might have happened during the terrible blank; and, above all, he must win her confidence.
"Ah, yes, you are indeed the same. Why—why have you given us all this sorrow, this fearful anxiety? Think of what your poor father has suffered! Do you know that he has gone to America to search for you?"
"My father!" she repeated, "my poor dear father!" Then she paused, as if resisting the inclination to speak.
"I must not keep you here in the cold, dark street. I cannot let you go alone. May I not come with you?"
"Oh, no, no, no," she repeated; "you must let me go. I cannot, dare not let you come with me. I must not tell you anything."
"Now that I have found you, do you think I will lose sight of you again?"
"You will, I am sure, do what is best for me, and kindest," said Elsie, trying to be calm, and wrapping the veil round her face again. "Let us move on; we shall attract attention."
She did not resist when he drew her arm through his own, and they slowly paced up the street in which he had overtaken her.