But by-and-by, wrestling with the dread thought of what she had done, and
the horror which would return upon her by fits and spasms, she flung out
a hand, and it fell on him. He started, and the movement, jarring the
broken limb, wrung from him a cry of pain. She looked up and was going
to speak, when a scuffling of feet under the gateway arch, and a confused
sound of several voices raised at once, arrested the words on her lips.
She rose to her feet and listened. Dimly he could see her face through
the dusk. Her eyes were on the door, and she breathed quickly.
A moment or two passed in this way, and then from the hurly-burly in the
gateway the footsteps of two men--one limped--detached themselves and
came nearer and nearer. They stopped without. A gleam of light shone
under the door, and some one knocked.
She went to the door, and, withdrawing the bar, stepped quickly back to
the bedside, where for an instant the light borne by those who entered
blinded her. Then, above the lanthorn, the faces of La Tribe and Bigot
broke upon her, and their shining eyes told her that they bore good news.
It was well, for the men seemed tongue-tied. The minister's fluency was
gone; he was very pale, and it was Bigot who in the end spoke for both.
He stepped forward, and, kneeling, kissed her cold hand.
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