“No, no.”  And the sick man shook his head slowly.  “There is none to ask for me.  Did you say it was a young woman?” he inquired, soon after.  His mind dwelt on the occurrence.

“Yes.  A young woman with a fair complexion and deep blue eyes.”

Marvel looked up quickly into the face of the attendant, while a flush came into his cheeks.

“She was a slender young girl, with light hair, and her face was pale, as from trouble.”

“Agnes!  Agnes!” exclaimed Marvel, rising up.  “But, no, no,” he added, mournfully, sinking back again upon the bed; “that cannot be.  I left her far away over the wide ocean.”

“Will you write?” said the nurse after some moments.

The invalid, without unclosing his eyes, slowly shook his head.  A little while the attendant lingered in his room, and then retired.

“Dear, dear Agnes!” murmured Edward Marvel, closing his eyes, and letting his thoughts go, swift-winged, across the billow sea.  “Shall I never look on your sweet face again?  Never feel your light arms about my neck, or your breath warm on my cheek?  Oh, that I had never left you!  Heaven give thee strength to bear the trouble in store!”

For many minutes he lay thus, alone, with his eyes closed, in sad self-communion.  Then he heard the door open and close softly; but he did not look up.  His thoughts were far, far away.  Light feet approached quickly; but he scarcely heeded them.  A form bent over him; but his eyes remained shut, nor did he open them until warm lips were pressed against his own, and a low voice, thrilling through his whole being, said—­

“Edward!”

“Agnes!” was his quick response, while his arms were thrown eagerly around the neck of his wife, “Agnes!  Agnes!  Have I awakened from a fearful dream?”

Yes, it was indeed her of whom he had been thinking.  The moment she received his letter, informing her that he had left for the United States, she resolved to follow him in the next steamer that sailed.  This purpose she immediately avowed to her parents.  At first, they would not listen to her; but, finding that she would, most probably, elude their vigilance, and get away in spite of all efforts to prevent her, they deemed it more wise and prudent to provide her with everything necessary for the voyage, and to place her in the care of the captain of the steamship in which she was to go.  In New York they had friends, to whom they gave her letters fully explanatory of her mission, and earnestly commending her to their care and protection.

Two weeks before the ship in which Edward Marvel sailed reached her destination, Agnes was in New York.  Before her departure, she had sought, but in vain, to discover the name of the vessel in which her husband had embarked.  On arriving in the New World, she was therefore uncertain whether he had preceded her in a steamer, or was still lingering on the way.

The friends to whom Agnes brought letters received her with great kindness, and gave her all the advice and assistance needed under the circumstances.  But two weeks went by without a word of intelligence on the one subject that absorbed all her thoughts.  Sadly was her health beginning to suffer.  Sunken eyes and pale cheeks attested the weight of suffering that was on her.