"Hush! Do not say such a foolish thing, Mrs. Farraday. I am nothing of the kind. I am only weak clay. But I was not speaking of spiritual benefits, but of bodily."
"Bodily benefits! Why, I wonder you did not die. If I had gone through what you suffered last night I do believe I should lose the use of my reason."
"And, owing to the fright I got last night, I have recovered the use of my limbs. Look!"
And she rose and walked across the room.
"Merciful Heavens!" cried the other. "This is indeed a miracle!"
The house in which the fire had occurred was Mrs. Crawford's own property, so she did not leave it, but had the requisite repairs done while continuing to occupy it. The widow now no longer required a room on the first floor. She was able to go up and down stairs. She could not walk so fast or so far as before the day her husband was carried in dead, but for all the purposes of her household she was as efficient as ever. The very fact that she was obliged to walk more slowly than other women added a new gentleness, a new charm to her graciousness. Her gratitude for deliverance from the fire and the thraldom of her wearying disease added a fresh softness to her smile and manner. It seemed as though youth had been restored to her. The whole world was beautiful to her, because it had been given back to her after she had made up her mind she should see it no more. All the people she met were her friends; for had not one of them snatched her from death, and restored her to the holy brotherhood of mankind?
And what more natural than that among all the brotherhood of mankind she should look with most favour and gratitude on the man who had risked his life for hers, and restored her again to intimacies with the sunshine and the birds and the flowers?
That surely was enough for one man to do for any mortal.
But this man had done more for her. He had performed a miracle, wrought a charm. Doctors might say it was the shock which had cured her. All she knew was that when she lay there in the throes of death she had been helpless, that she had been helpless for years; that he came and snatched her from the choking deadly vapour, and that when she awoke to consciousness she was healed.
She had no more thought of love or marriage then than she had of wearing the Queen of England's crown.