Part 42 (1/2)

Oh, one more kiss from your lily-white lips, One kiss is all I crave; Oh, one more kiss from your lily-white lips And return back to your grave.

--_Old Cornish Song_.

Long years have pa.s.sed since the events I am now narrating, yet my flesh creeps as I write. Imagine, if you can, the circ.u.mstances that surrounded me; think of the position in which I was placed. I had learnt amidst anguish and despair that the woman I loved, and who I thought had called me home, was dead, and I had determined to visit her grave and to see her dead face. Then when I had found my way to her tomb, and uncovered her resting-place, I had seen the one whom I had thought dead move, and give other signs of life. When she sat up in her coffin my blood froze in my veins.

Was it my Ruth who lived? Was her death only fancied after all? Now I saw a purpose in all my blind wanderings! Now I understood the cry which I had heard sweeping across the weary waste of waters, ”Come home and save me, Roger!” Now I saw meaning in my mad impulse to come to Morton Hall, even when the fires of h.e.l.l burnt in my soul! Now I knew why I had heard the strange words, ”Visit her tomb!”

Merciful Heaven, from what had I saved her? Suppose she had regained consciousness while within the narrow confines of that narrow coffin!

No air, no room, no light! The horror of the thought is enough to drive one mad; what then must the reality be?

This flashed through my mind in a moment, but I did not stay to think of it. How could I? The dread ”might be” had not become a reality, and my Ruth--the Ruth that I had been mourning as dead, Ruth for whom my heart had been weeping tears of blood--was alive; she was sitting up in her coffin, she uttered a cry. Ruth was not lost for ever.

And still I did not know what to do; still I could not act or speak!

My mind was confused, my head was dizzy; the very vault in which I stood seemed to whirl around.

For a second we gazed into each other eyes; she with a fearful, yet curious, wondering look, I with a look of madness, at once of joy, of fear, of dread!

Then she spoke, slowly, tremblingly, but still clearly, and I remembered the voice.

”What is this? Where am I? Is this Heaven?”

”All is well!” I whispered.

”It must be,” she said, in a dazed kind of way. ”I am so rested, so free from pain, and then your voice is so familiar. Where am I, and who are you?”

”Think,” I said; ”but do not be afraid; remember where you were last, and then know that all is well.”

”All is well,” she repeated slowly, as if trying to impress the thought on her half-awakened mind, ”I am so glad.”

”You are safe here,” I went on, ”no one shall harm you in any way. Do not be afraid whatever you may see.”

She looked around the vault, then a look of horror came into her eyes as she saw where she sat.

”I am in a coffin!” she gasped. ”Am I dead?”

”No,” I said, ”it is all a mistake; but all is well. Think, try and remember the past.”

I saw that she made a mental effort, and then slowly light came into her eyes.

”I was very ill,” she said, ”and so weak and weary. I wanted to die because--because--what was it? Oh, I remember now--because I was to wed--Wilfred, and I did not love him, and my wedding robe was made, and the wedding day was fixed, and I gave up hope that he was ever coming home.”

My heart began to beat with joy. Life and light came back to my heart.

That ”he” meant me--Roger.

”And then?” I said, almost unconsciously.

”And then I thought I was going to die, and I was glad, for I felt I could not endure being wedded to another.”

She spoke as if dreaming, or as if she unknowingly expressed the thoughts that dimly pa.s.sed through her mind.