Helen then rose and lit the lamp, and the fire in the open fire-place; she glanced at the clock and saw that more than a quarter of an hour had passed, and she said to herself that it could not be more than that time again before David was back.

“I should go out and meet him if I were feeling quite strong,” she added as she went to the door and looked out; then she exclaimed suddenly:  “But oh, I know how I can please him better!” And the girl went to the table where some of her books were lying, and sat down and began very diligently studying, glancing every half minute at the clock and at the door.  “I shall be too busy even to hear him!” she said, with a sudden burst of glee; and quite delighted with the effect that would produce she listened eagerly every time she fancied she heard a step, and then fixed her eyes upon the book, and put on a look of most complete absorption.

Unfortunately for Helen’s plan, however, each time it proved to be a false alarm; and so the fifteen minutes passed completely, and then five, and five again.  The girl had quite given up studying by that time, and was gazing at the clock, and listening to its ticking, and wondering very much indeed.  At last when more than three-quarters of an hour had passed since David had left, she got up and went to the door once more to listen; as she did not hear anything she went out on the piazza, and finally to the road.  All about her was veiled in shadow, which her eyes strove in vain to pierce; and so growing still more impatient she raised her voice and called, “David, David!” and then stood and listened to the rustling of the leaves and the faint lapping of the water on the shore.

“That is very strange,” Helen thought, growing very anxious indeed; “it is fearfully strange!  What in the world can have happened?” And she called again, with no more result that before; until with a sudden resolution she turned and passed quickly into the house, and flinging a wrap about her, came out and started down the road.  Occasionally she raised her voice and shouted David’s name, but still she got no reply, and her anxiety soon changed into alarm, and she was hurrying along, almost in a run.  In this way she climbed the long ascent which the road made from the lake shore; and when she had reached the top of it she gathered her breath and shouted once more, louder and more excitedly than ever.

This time she heard the expected reply, and found that David was only a few rods ahead of her.  “What is the matter?” she called to him, and as he answered that it was nothing, but to come to him, she ran on more alarmed than ever.

There was just light enough for her to see that David was bending down; and then as she got very near she saw that on the ground in front of him was lying a dark, shadowy form.  As Helen cried out again to know what was the matter, her husband said, “Do not be frightened, dear; it is only some poor woman that I have found here by the roadside.”