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Nell of Shorne Mills

Page 87

They stood and looked at each other in silence for a moment; but what a

silence!

It almost seemed to Nell as if it were not he himself who stood before

her, but just a vision of her imagination, called up by the intensity of

her thoughts of him. The color came and went in her face, leaving it, at

last, pale and startled. And he, too, stood, as incapable of speech as

any of the shy and bashful young fishermen on the quay; he, the man of

the world, who had faced so many "situations" with women--women of the

world armed with the weapons of experience, and the "higher culture." At

that moment, intense as it was, the strength of the emotion which swept

over him and mastered him, amazed him.

He knew, now that he was face to face with her, how he had missed this

girl, how keen and intolerable had been his longing for her.

He remembered to hold out his hand. Had he done so yet? For the life of

him, he could not have told. The sight of the sweet face had cast a

spell over him, and he did not know whether he was standing or sitting.

As she put her small hand in his, Nell recovered something of her

self-possession; but not all, for her heart was beating furiously, her

bosom heaving, and she was in agony lest he should see the mist of dew

which seemed to cover her eyes.

"I'm afraid I startled you," he said.

Nell smiled faintly, and drew her hand away--for he had held it half

unconsciously.

"I think you did--a little," she admitted. "You see, I--we did not

expect you. And"--she laughed the laugh he had heard in his dreams,

though it had not always been so tremulous, so like the flutelike quaver

of this laugh--"and even now I am not quite sure it is you."

"It is I--believe me," he said. "It is the same bad penny come back."

Then it flashed upon him he must give some reason for his return.

Incredible as it may seem, he was not prepared with one. He had made up

his mind to come; he would have gone through fire and water to get back

to Shorne Mills, but he had quite forgotten that some excuse would be

necessary.

But she did not seem to see the necessity.

"Are you quite well now?" she asked, just glancing up at him.

"Quite," he said; "perfectly well."

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