the more he admired me and the fonder he was of me.

This is written of, I am sensible, as if it had lasted a year. It lasted about five days. Expecting Herbert all the time, I dared not go out, except when I took Provis for an airing after dark. At length, one evening when dinner was over and I had dropped into a slumber quite worn out, — for my nights had been agitated and my rest broken by fearful dreams, — I was roused by the welcome footstep on the staircase.

Provis, who had been asleep too, staggered up at the noise I made, and in an instant I saw his jackknife shining in his hand.

“Quiet! It's Herbert!” I said; and Herbert came bursting in, with the airy freshness of six hundred miles of France upon him.