"Bessie!"
It had been hardly more than a whisper, but through the mists of sleep Bessie heard it. There was a cry, a bound, and then a rapturous voice saying in the half darkness,
"Ah, you are here already! I knew you would come."
But at the next moment, seeing who her visitor was, she stared at him with wide-open eyes, and then fell on him with reproaches.
"So it's you, is it? What have you come for? Is it only to tell me that I'm to die in the morning?"
Stowell stood with head down, feeling like a prisoner before his Judge. Then he said,
"You are not to die, Bessie."
She caught her breath and put up her hands to her breast.
"Do you mean that I am...."
"You are pardoned and have to leave this place immediately."