Page:The New Arcadia (Tucker).djvu/283

Rh the late manager's suit, and agree to an alliance that would unite the two properties. The projected union was likely to be happily consummated at an early date, when the villagers would be assured of their title to their lands, and their master to the rich widow, &c.

The wretched print the doctor laid on his knee, and gazed blankly, for an hour, at the picture of Millais' 'Huguenot' that happened to hang on the wall opposite. His whole life passed in review before him; since a lovely woman first nestled to his breast and confessed that she loved him. The parting beside the lake, the eager longing for return, the face that haunted him as he paced the sand of his exile, all flashed in turn before him.

And it was for this he had persevered and lived! To find his wife the accepted bride, nay, perhaps already the wife, of his would-be murderer! He would return to the island retreat and spend his remaining years in companionship with the sea-fowl. He walked forth beside the wide river. Might he not fling himself on its turbid bosom, be lost, and remain forgotten? Nay, he was cowed, but not coward yet! He would go on to the bitter end!

Apparently his unhappy wife was, at worst, but sacrificing herself to purchase terms for the oppressed people. She was their champion in his absence.

He would see her again, though she should not know him. He must avoid that man lest murder should soil his name. Nay, he might yet, if it were not too late, unravel the mystery and save his wife. But not if, even for others' sake, she had yielded to this man's importunities. She would never again be his!

His canoe the traveller had lowered from the deck into the river and made fast to the stern, professedly to