While thus alternately urging and persuading Katherine, the coach came,

the disguise was assumed, and the two drove rapidly to the "King's

Arms." Hyde was lying upon a couch which had been drawn close to the

window. But in order to secure as much quiet as possible, he had been

placed in one of the rooms at the rear of the tavern,--a large, airy

room, looking into the beautiful garden which stretched away backward as

far as the river. He had been in extremity. He was yet too weak to

stand, too weak to endure long the strain of company or books or papers.

He heard his aunt's voice and footfall, and felt, as he always did, a

vague pleasure in her advent. Whatever of life came into his chamber of

suffering came through her. She brought him daily such intelligences as

she thought conducive to his recovery; and it must be acknowledged that

it was not always her "humour to be truthful." For Hyde had so craved

news of Katherine, that she believed he would die wanting it; and she

had therefore fallen, without one conscientious scruple, into the

reporter's temptation,--inventing the things which ought to have taken

place, and did not. "For, in faith, Nigel," she said to her husband, in

excuse, "those who have nothing to tell must tell lies."

Her reports had been ingenious and diversified. "She had seen Katherine

at one of the windows,--the very picture of distraction." "She had been

told that Katherine was breaking her heart about him;" also, "that Elder

Semple and Councillor Van Heemskirk had quarrelled because Katharine

had refused to see Neil, and the elder blamed Van Heemskirk for not

compelling her obedience." Whenever Hyde had been unusually depressed or

unusually nervous, Mrs. Gordon had always had some such comforting

fiction ready. Now, here was the real Katherine. Her very presence, her

smiles, her tears, her words, would be a consolation so far beyond all

hope, that the girl by her side seemed a kind of miracle to her.

She was far more than a miracle to Hyde. As the door opened, he slowly

turned his head. When he saw who was really there, he uttered a low

cry of joy,--a cry pitiful in its shrill weakness. In a moment Katherine

was close to his side. This was no time for coyness, and she was too

tender and true a woman to feel or to affect it. She kissed his hands

and face, and whispered on his lips the sweetest words of love and

fidelity. Hyde was in a rapture. His joyful soul made his pale face

luminous. He lay still, speechless, motionless, watching and listening

to her.




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