Page:The Father Confessor, Stories of Danger and Death.djvu/22

14 me mad. Trying to make her fear for me also, I walked too near the edge, and the ground crumbled beneath me. When next I knew anything I saw the other woman bending over me and laughing. I rose to my feet and found I was not hurt.

"'Come, come, you are all right,' the woman said; 'you only fell a little way. I knew you could not be hurt.'

"Vexed at her calmness, I looked round for my wife. She was walking up and down behind me, holding her hands across her breast.

"'Oh,' she said, 'you frightened me so. My heart beats so strangely.'

"For some moments she could not calm herself, then she turned to me with her smile, holding my hands.

"'Did I frighten you?' she said; 'but my heart, I thought it would not beat again. I thought you had fallen over the cliff into the sea. I did not know there was a ledge only a few feet down.'

"That was my first trial, half accidental, but wholly successful. What did you say, Father? I did not hear you. Your hand is hurting mine; take it away.