“I expected that both of us would be dashed in pieces when I saw the earth giving way, and heard that dreadful noise,” she added, in trembling tones.
“Better that, than that I should not have come at all,” he returned, passionately.
His tone seemed to recall her suddenly to herself, and she tried to release her hands, which he still held tightly clasped in his.
He was almost unconscious that he still held them, but at the effort she made he looked up at her and saw that her face had grown crimson with blushes, while her eyes dropped shyly beneath his gaze.
“I beg your pardon,” he said, releasing them at once, and rising to his feet. “You will think me presuming, but my gratitude that you were safe made me forget myself. Did I understand you that you are staying at the castle?” he asked, changing the subject to relieve his embarrassment.
“I am there for a few days.”
“Indeed! and so am I,” he replied, much pleased, and forgetting that he had told his grandmother he could not possibly remain longer than over one night. “You are cold,” he added, as he saw her shiver; “shall I take you back now to the castle?”
“Thank you; yes.”
Then, with a tenderness which thrilled her through and through, yet with a courtly deference which made him seem more grand and noble than ever before, he supported her faltering steps down the steep path, and led her back to the castle.
“You have not yet told me, nor will I ask you to-night, how you happened to leave London so suddenly. Wilbur Coolidge told me that I should find you at the ‘Washington,’” he said, as he drew near the door.