But it was, of course, too late that night to see Clifford, and he was forced to wait until the morrow, when he drove over to the hotel directly after breakfast to ascertain how his darling was, and to interview the hero of the previous day.
Miss Minnie was up and none the worse for her tragic experience of the day before, but Clifford excused himself when Mr. Temple sent up his card and requested an audience. He was still considerably under the weather, and said he did not feel like talking about the ordeal through which he had passed just at present, and so the gentleman was forced to curb his impatience.
He came every day to inquire for him, and to bring him delicacies of various kinds to tempt his appetite; but it was not until the fourth morning after the accident that he achieved the object of his visits.
As his carriage drove to the door of the hotel on this occasion, Clifford was sitting upon the piazza, and almost himself again, although still a trifle weak. Little Minnie was with her father, and waved her dimpled hand to Clifford the moment she espied him.
Clifford smiled a welcome to the pretty child, and, rising, went forward to greet her. The moment her father lifted her from the carriage she bounded up the steps and sprang toward Clifford, seizing with both her little hands the one he extended to her, and a strange thrill went tingling along the young man’s nerves at her touch.
He told himself that it was on account of the fearful experience which they had shared, and that, because of it, a bond had been established between them that would forever unite their hearts in a mutual interest in each other.
Mr. Temple followed his little daughter, his lips quivering visibly.
“I am sure you must be the young man to whom we all, as a family, owe so much,” he said, as he extended a trembling hand to Clifford. “Words are tame. I have no power to adequately express what I feel, but if there is anything on earth that I can do for you, you have but to make it known, if it is attainable, it shall be done.”
Clifford gazed into the clear-cut face of the man before him, and somehow, in spite of the genuine emotion which he betrayed, he was instantly repelled by him.
“Thank you,” he returned, as he released the hand that he had taken, and with the frank, genial smile which won almost every one, “you are very kind, but, pray, believe me, the knowledge that Miss Minnie is safe and well is reward enough for me.”