“I knew now the fidelity of her affection.  She had followed my invalid wanderings, to be near me in want and prostration.  I could have knelt in the aisle of the dim woods, with God’s choir of waters pealing before me, to weep my gratitude.  But as the figure of Heraine disappeared above, those other abhorred footfalls rang keenly below.  Deep, rapid, and elastic, they were sonorously defined above the clash of the cataract.  I fled, with my hands upon my ears.

“On and on! winding among boles, creeping beneath branches, climbing ledges, vaulting over fissures and chasms, I reached the open plain at last, and halted unnerved upon the brink of the abyss.

“The glory of the prospect filled me with exquisite pain.  A mist, arched by a delicate rainbow, rose from the tumbling flood, and the sunny valley was visible, at intervals, beyond it, inclosed by blue mountains and intersected by the pale, ribbon-like Susquehanna.  It was my fate to endure, not to enjoy; but at this moment the cataract was forgotten in a deeper torment; the boughs opened, the sky split with the shock of feet, and a man bounded from the wood.

“He was tall, handsome, and athletic, and his ruddy cheeks were flushed with exercise.  He made a trumpet of his hands, and hallooed, long and clear,

“‘Hera—­a—­a—­ine!’

“Then he whistled through his fist till the rocks and water rang.

“‘Where the deuce is the dear girl?’ he said, and his eyes fell upon me.

“A terrible hatred rose in my heart against this man.  It was the first great passion I had nurtured, and had received no other provocation than the empty sounds of his footfalls.  But antipathies are not accidental merely; they are organic; and my quick sense took alarm even from his tread.  One’s character may be defined in his gait, but I knew from the tramp of this person that his nature was averse to mine.  Why had he followed my affianced across the seas?  Why had his crashing drowned the music of her steps?  Why had he uttered her name with an endearment?  Why had he been retained at her side, and I sent alone and wretched before?  My wrists knotted nervously as these accusations took shape, and my blood became gall.

“‘I beg pardon,’ he said curtly; ’but are you the young man we are looking for?’

“I asked through my teeth whom he designated in the term ‘we.’

“‘Heraine, of course,’ he replied; ’give me your hand!  We have followed our little invalid—­that’s what we call you—­over many a league, and may make his acquaintance at last.  Ralph Clendenning, at your service!’

“I shrank menacingly from him, and counted the dull throbs of my heart.

“‘What! timid!’ he said; ’and with so old a friend?  I never met you, indeed, but then I have talked of you so often that you have grown to be quite a brother.’

“I saw that he was frank and winning, and hated him the more.

“‘Upon my word,’ he added, ’there was none whom I had resolved in my mind to love so well, for the sake of Heraine.’