quickly, started to his feet, and turning round, looked at that
something in the corner. It took the form of a human figure, which
raised itself on an elbow and said: "Water--water--for the love of God!"

Father Corraine stood painfully staring at the figure for a moment, and
then the words broke from him "Not dead--not dead--wonderful!" Then
he stepped quickly to a table, took therefrom a pannikin of water, and
kneeling, held it to the lips of the gasping figure of a woman, throwing
his arm round the shoulder, and supporting the head on his breast. Again
he spoke "Alive--alive! Blessed be Heaven!"

The hands of the woman seized the hand of the priest, which held the
pannikin, and kissed it, saying faintly: "You are good to me.... But
I must sleep--I must sleep--I am so tired; and I've--very far--to
go--across the world."

This was said very slowly, then the head thick with brown curls dropped
again on the priest's breast, heavy with sleep. Father Corraine,
flushing slightly at first, became now slightly pale, and his brow was a
place of war between thankfulness and perplexity. But he said something
prayerfully, then closed his lips firmly, and gently laid the figure
down, where it was immediately clothed about with slumber. Then he
rose, and standing with his eyes bent upon the sleeper and his fingers
clasping each other tightly before him, said: "Poor girl! So, she is
alive. And now what will come of it?"

He shook his grey head in doubt, and immediately began to prepare some
simple food and refreshment for the sufferer when she should awake. In
the midst of doing so he paused and repeated the words, "And what will
come of it?" Then he added: "There was no sign of pulse nor heart-beat
when I found her. But life hides itself where man cannot reach it."

Having finished his task, he sat down, drew the book of holy offices
again from his bosom, and read it, whisperingly, for a time; then fell
to musing, and, after a considerable time, knelt down as if in prayer.
While he knelt, the girl, as if startled from her sleep by some inner
shock, opened her eyes wide and looked at him, first with bewilderment,
then with anxiety, then with wistful thankfulness. "Oh, I thought--I
thought when I awoke before that it was a woman. But it is the good
Father Corraine--Corraine, yes, that was the name."

The priest's clean-shaven face, long hair, and black cassock had, in her
first moments of consciousness, deceived her. Now a shar