"Lucilla!"
She came back to the world—she came back to us—with a little start, and a faint flush of color in her cheeks. She turned herself towards the place from which I had spoken, and whispered——
"Come!"
In a moment, my arms were round her. Her head sank on my bosom. We were reconciled without a word. We were friends again, sisters again, in an instant.
"Have I been fainting? have I been sleeping?" she said to me in low, bewildered tones. "Am I just awake? Is this Browndown?" She suddenly lifted her head. "Nugent! are you there?"
"Yes."
She gently withdrew herself from me, and approached Nugent.
"Did you speak to me just now? Was it you who put the doubt into my mind, whether I am really doomed to be blind for life? Surely, I have not fancied it? Surely, you said the man was coming, and the time coming?" Her voice suddenly rose. "The man who may cure me! the time when I may see!"
"I said it, Lucilla. I meant it, Lucilla."
"Oscar! Oscar!! Oscar!!!"