O, cocks are crowing a merry midnight, I wot the wild-fowls are boding day;Give me my faith and troth again, And let me fare me on my way.
Sae painfully she clam the wa', She clam the wa' up after him;Hosen nor shoon upon her feet, She hadna time to put them on.
Scotch Ballad.--Clerk Saunders.
Dreary days passed. The reports of Euphra were as favourable as the nature of the injury had left room to expect. Still they were but reports: Hugh could not see her, and the days passed drearily. He heard that the swelling was reduced, and that the ankle was found not to be dislocated, but that the bones were considerably injured, and that the final effect upon the use of the parts was doubtful.
The pretty foot lay aching in Hugh's heart. When Harry went to bed, he used to walk out and loiter about the grounds, full of anxious fears and no less anxious hopes. If the night was at all obscure, he would pass, as often as he dared, under Euphra's window;for all he could have of her now was a few rays from the same light that lighted her chamber. Then he would steal away down the main avenue, and thence watch the same light, whose beams, in that strange play which the intellect will keep up in spite of--yet in association with--the heart, made a photo-materialist of him. For he would now no longer believe in the pulsations of an ethereal medium; but--that the very material rays which enlightened Euphra's face, whether she waked or slept, stole and filtered through the blind and the gathered shadows, and entered in bodily essence into the mysterious convolutions of his brain, where his soul and heart sought and found them.
When a week had passed, she was so far recovered as to be able to see Mr. Arnold; from whom Hugh heard, in a somewhat reproachful tone, that she was but the wreck of her former self. It was all that Hugh could do to restrain the natural outbreak of his feelings.
A fortnight passed, and she saw Mrs. Elton and Lady Emily for a few moments. They would have left before, but had yielded to Mr. Arnold's entreaty, and were staying till Euphra should be at least able to be carried from her room.
One day, when the visitors were out with Mr. Arnold, Jane brought a message to Hugh, requesting him to walk into Miss Cameron's room, for she wanted to see him. Hugh felt his heart flutter as if doubting whether to stop at once, or to dash through its confining bars. He rose and followed the maid. He stood over Euphra pale and speechless. She lay before him wasted and wan; her eyes twice their former size, but with half their former light; her fingers long and transparent; and her voice low and feeble. She had just raised herself with difficulty to a sitting posture, and the effort had left her more weary.
"Hugh!" she said, kindly.
"Dear Euphra!" he answered, kissing the little hand he held in his.
She looked at him for a little while, and the tears rose in her eyes.
"Hugh, I am a cripple for life."
"God forbid, Euphra!" was all he could reply.
She shook her head mournfully. Then a strange, wild look came in her eyes, and grew till it seemed from them to overflow and cover her whole face with a troubled expression, which increased to a look of dull agony.
"What is the matter, dear Euphra?" said Hugh, in alarm. "Is your foot very painful?"She made no answer. She was looking fixedly at his hand.
"Shall I call Jane?"
She shook her head.
"Can I do nothing for you?"
"No," she answered, almost angrily.
"Shall I go, Euphra?"
"Yes--yes. Go."
He left the room instantly. But a sharp though stifled cry of despair drew him back at a bound. Euphra had fainted.
He rang the bell for Jane; and lingered till he saw signs of returning consciousness.
What could this mean? He was more perplexed with her than ever he had been. Cunning love, however, soon found a way of explaining it--A way?--Twenty ways--not one of them the way.
Next day, Lady Emily brought him a message from Euphra--not to distress himself about her; it was not his fault.
This message the bearer of it understood to refer to the original accident, as the sender of it intended she should: the receiver interpreted it of the occurrence of the day before, as the sender likewise intended. It comforted him.