Page:The Father Confessor, Stories of Danger and Death.djvu/315



HE darkness had come; the night she had prayed for so long was here at last. With trembling hands she swept the hearth again and stirred the fire to brightness. It was All Souls’ Eve.

A year to-morrow the blow had fallen which had swept joy and hope from her heart, and to-night happiness would be hers once more, for a few brief hours at least. He would return with the darkness; he would return whom the seas had drowned. The dead would rise again. Upon the waters he had gone to seek a fortune, that it might be possible for them to marry, for he was poor. But the waters had dragged him down. What fortune had he found—the best beloved—among the strange sea-creatures?

She pulled the heavy curtains across the windows and put the door upon the latch. F.C.