"I will give it to him again. With my own hands I will give it to him

once more. O Richard, my lover, my husband! Now I will hasten to see

thee."

With relays at every post-house, she reached London the next night, and,

weary and terrified, drove at once to the small hostelry where Hyde lay.

There was a soldier sitting outside his chamber-door, but the wounded

man was quite alone when Katherine entered. She took in at a glance the

bare, comfortless room, scarcely lit by the sputtering rush-candle, and

the rude bed, and the burning cheeks of the fevered man upon it.

"Katherine!" he cried; and his voice was as weak and as tearful as that

of a troubled child.

"Here come I, my dear one."

"I do not deserve it. I have been so wicked, and you my pure good wife."

"See, then, I have had no temptations, but thou hast lived in the midst

of great ones. Then, how natural and how easy was it for thee to do

wrong!"

"Oh, how you love me, Katherine!"

"God knows."

"And for this wrong you will not forsake me?"

She took from her bosom the St. Nicholas ribbon. "I give it to thee

again. At the first time I loved thee; now, my husband, ten thousand

times more I love thee. As I went through the papers, I found it. So

much it said to me of thy true love! So sweetly for thee it pleaded! All

that it asks for thee, I give. All that thou hast done wrong to me, it

forgives."

And between their clasped hands it lay,--the bit of orange ribbon that

had handselled all their happiness.

"It is the promise of everything I can give thee, my loved one,"

whispered Katherine.

"It is the luck of Richard Hyde. Dearest wife, thou hast given me my

life back again."




readonlinefreebook.com Copyright 2016 - 2024