“Be patient.  I am coming.”

She could not understand why he did not come through the door instead of standing beneath the window, and it seemed stranger still, that after a little while all grew silent again.  But her confidence never wavered, and in the darkness she knelt there patiently, knowing that he would not forsake her.

It seemed a very long time before Hero’s bark greeted her once more, and, turning toward the window, a lingering zigzag flash of lightning showed her Douglass Lindsay’s face, as he climbed in, followed by the dog.

“Regina! where are you?”

“Oh, here I am!”

He stood on one of the seats, swinging a lantern in his hand, and as she spoke he sprang toward her.

Still clutching the altar railing with one hand, she knelt, with her white suffering face upturned piteously to him, and stooping he threw his arms around her and clasped her to his heart.

“My darling, God has been merciful to you and me!”

She stole one arm up about his neck, and clung to him, while for the first time he kissed her cheek and brow.

“Does my darling know what an awful risk she ran?  The steeple has fallen, and the whole front of the church is blocked up, a mass of ruins.  I could not get in, and feared you were crushed, until I heard Hero bark from the inside and followed the sound, which brought me to the window, whence he jumped out to meet me.  At last when you answered my call, I was obliged to go back for a ladder.  Here, darling, at God’s altar, let us thank Him for your preservation.”

He bowed his face upon her head, and she heard the whispered thanksgiving that ascended to the throne of grace, but no words were audible.  Rising he attempted to lift her, but she winced and moaned, involuntarily sinking back.

“What is the matter?  After all, were you hurt?”

“When I came down from the gallery it turned so dark I was frightened, and I stumbled and fell down the steps.  I must have broken something, for when I stand up my ankle gives way, and I can’t walk at all.”

“Then how did you get here?  The steps are at the front of the church.”

“I thought the altar was the safest place, and I crawled here on my hands and knees.”

He pressed her head against his shoulder, and his deep manly voice trembled.

“Thank God, for the thought.  It was your salvation, for the stairs and the spot where you must have fallen are a heap of stone, brick, and mortar.  If you had remained there, you would certainly have been killed.”

“Yes, it was just after I got here and caught hold of the railing that the crash came.  Oh! is it not awful!”

“It was an almost miraculous escape, for which you ought to thank and serve your God all the days of the life He has mercifully spared to you.  Stand up a minute, even if it pains you, and let me find out what ails your foot.  I know something of surgery, for once it was my intention to study medicine instead of divinity.”