Twice he essayed to speak, but his tongue refused to move, and he sank
back exhausted, just as Adah arose from her knees and turned to leave
the barn. He could not let her go. He should die before she came again;
he was half dying now, and it would be so sweet to breathe out his life
upon her bosom, with perhaps her forgiving kiss upon his lips.
"Adah!" he tried to say; but the quivering lips made no sound, and Adah
passed out, leaving him there alone. "Adah, Lily, Anna," he gasped,
hardly knowing himself whose name he called in his despair.
She heard that sound, and started suddenly, for she thought it was her
old, familiar name which no one knew there at Sunny Mead. For a moment
she paused; but it came not again, and so she turned the corner, and her
shadow fell a second time on the haggard face pressed against that
crevice in the wall, the opening large enough to thrust the long fingers
through, in the wild hope of detaining her as she passed.
"Adah!"
It was a gasping, bitter cry; but it reached her, and looking back, she
saw the pale hand beckoning, the fingers motioning feebly, as if begging
her to return. There was a moment's hesitation, and then conquering her
timidity, Adah went back, shuddering as she passed the still beckoning
hand, and caught a glimpse of the wild eyes peering at her through the
crevice.
"Adah!"
She heard it distinctly now, and with it came thoughts of Hugh. It must
be he; and her feet scarcely touched the ground in her eagerness to find
him. Over the threshold, across the floor, and behind the hay she
bounded; but stood aghast at the spectacle before her. He had struggled
to his knees; and with his sprained limb coiled under him, his ashen
lips apart, and his arms stretched out, he was waiting for her. But Adah
did not spring into those trembling arms, as once she would have done.
She would never willingly rest in their embrace again; and utter,
overwhelming surprise was the only emotion on her face as she recognized
him, not so much by his looks as by the name he gave her.
"George, oh, George, how came you here?" she asked, drawing backward
from the arm reached out to touch her.
He felt that he was repulsed, and, with a wail which smote painfully on
Adah's heart, he fell forward on his face, sobbing: "Oh, Adah, Lily,
pity me, pity me, if you can't forgive! I have slept for three nights in
the woods, without once tasting food! My ankle is sprained, my strength
is gone, and I wish that I were dead!"
She had drawn nearer to him, while he spoke, near enough to recognize
her country's uniform, all soiled and tattered though it was. He was a
soldier, then--Liberty's loyal son--and that fact awoke a throb of pity.