When he next looked up, with haggard countenance,
he saw her lips twitching and tears in her eyes.
"Ah!" he exclaimed, with a flash of hope, and half rose to go to her.
"No, no! Let me alone!" she cried, escaping narrowly from that
surrender to her feelings which would have meant forfeiting the fruits
of her long planning.
His mood changed.
"I'll not endure this," he cried, rising and pacing the floor. "You'll
find I'm no such weakling, though I can weep for my wife when I lose
her love. _He_ shall find it so, too! I understand now what you meant
by 'to-night of all nights.' He was to meet you to-night. He's
quartered in the house, you say. He was to slink up, no doubt, when
all were out of the way--your father divines little of this, I'll
warrant. Well, he may come--but he shall find _me_ waiting at my
wife's door!"
"You'll wait in vain, then. He is very far from here to-night."
"I'll believe that when it's proven. I find 'tis well that I, 'of all
men,' came here to-night."
"Nay, you're mistaken. You had been more like to find him to-night
where you came from, than where you've come to."
How true it is that a woman may always be relied on to say a word too
much--whether for the sake of a taunt, or the mere necessity of giving
an apt answer, I presume not to decide.
"What can that mean?" said he, arrested by the peculiarity of her tone
and look. "Find him where I came from? Why, that's our camp.
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