So he suddenly loved her.  And yet not suddenly; for all his life, and all his lesser forgotten or discarded passions, had been training him for this master one.

He suddenly and strongly loved her; and yet it had only been a beautiful bewilderment of uncomprehended delight, until this haunting vision of her fair face sinking amid the hungry ice beset him.  Then he perceived what would be lost to him, if she were lost.

The thought of Death placed itself between him and Love.  If the love had been merely a pretty remembrance of a charming woman, he might have dismissed his fancied drowning scene with a little emotion of regret.  Now, the fancy was an agony.

He had too much power over himself to entertain it long.  But the grisly thought came uninvited, returned undesired, and no resolute Avaunt, even backed by that magic wand, a cigar, availed to banish it wholly.

The sky cleared cold at eleven o’clock.  A sharp wind drew through the Highlands.  As the train rattled round the curve below the tunnel through Skerrett’s Point, Wade could see his skating course of Christmas-Day with the ladies.  Firm ice, glazed smooth by the sudden chill after the rain, filled the Cove and stretched beyond the Point into the river.

It was treacherous stuff, beautiful to the eyes of a skater, but sure to be weak, and likely to break up any moment and join the deliberate headlong drift of the masses in mid-current.

Wade almost dreaded lest his vision should suddenly realize itself, and he should see his enthusiastic companion of the other day sailing gracefully along to certain death.

Nothing living, however, was in sight, except here and there a crow, skipping about in the floating ice.

The lover was greatly relieved.  He could now forewarn the lady against the peril he had imagined.  The train in a moment dropped him at Dunderbunk.  He hurried to the Foundry and wrote a note to Mrs. Damer.

“Mr. Wade presents his compliments to Mrs. Damer, and has the honor to inform her that Mr. Skerrett has nominated him carver to the ladies to-day in their host’s place.

“Mr. Wade hopes that Miss Damer will excuse him from his engagement to skate with her this afternoon.  The ice is dangerous, and Miss Damer should on no account venture upon it.”

Perry Purtett was the bearer of this billet.  He swaggered into Peter Skerrett’s hall, and dreadfully alarmed the fresh-imported Englishman who answered the bell, by ordering him in a severe tone,—­

“Hurry up now, White Cravat, with that answer!  I’m wanted down to the Works.  Steam don’t bile when I’m off; and the fly-wheel will never buzz another turn, unless I’m there to motion it to move on.”

Mrs. Damer’s gracious reply informed Wade “that she should be charmed to see him at dinner, etc., and would not fail to transmit his kind warning to Miss Damer, when she returned from her drive to make calls.”