It was nearly an hour before he felt himself strong enough to do it, and
when at last he reached the narrow passage, and knew there was but a
step between him and Bessie, he trembled so that his aunt was obliged to
support him as he steadied himself against the door of the state-room.
Glancing in for an instant, Miss Grey put her finger upon her lip,
saying to him:
"She is asleep; sit quietly down till she wakens."
There was a buzzing in Grey's ears and a blur before his eyes, so that
he did not at once see distinctly the face which lay upon the pillow
resting on one hand, with the bright hair clinging about the neck and
brow. Bessie had fallen asleep while waiting for him, and there was a
smile upon her lips and a flush upon her cheek, which made her more
like the Bessie he knew at Stoneleigh than like the white-faced girl he
had left in Rome, and whom he had never thought to see again.
"It is Bessie and she is alive," he said, under his breath, and bending
over her he softly kissed her forehead saying as he did so, "My darling!
just for the moment _mine_, if Neil's by and by.
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