the moment,
I recognized him who, but a month before, had changed the world for me
with his look.

"Ah! mamma, and a thousand deaths lay between us; and we could neither
reach him nor give any alarm, for the space in which we found ourselves
was small and shut from the outer world by a door which was locked. How
it became locked I never knew, but I have thought that the maid in
flying might have turned the key behind her, under some wild impression
that by this means she would shut out destruction. However that may be,
we were helpless and threatened by death. But our own situation did not
alarm us, for theirs was so much more terrible, especially that of the
man whose straining arm clung so frantically to a support that
threatened every moment to slip from his grasp. I could not look at him,
and scarcely could I look at the other. But I did, for in his face there
was such a high and noble resolve that it made me forget his danger,
till suddenly I heard him speak high above the sounds that arose in a
tempest from the street:

"'Do not despair, Isidor. I think I can reach you and pull you up upon
the beam. You shall not die a dog's death if I can help it. Hold on and
I will come.' And he began to move and raise himself upon the narrow
platform on which he stood, and I saw that he meant what he said, and
involuntarily and with but little reason I cried:

"'Don't do it! He is your enemy. Save yourself; he is but a murderer;
let him go.'

"I said that; I who never had a cruel thought before in my life. But he,
without looking to see whence this voice came, answered boldly:

"'It is because he is my enemy that I wish to save him. I could never
enjoy a safety won at the expense of his death. Isidor, you must live!
So hold on, my cousin.'

[Illustration]

"And without saying anything further, this brave man set about a task
that seemed to me at that moment not only superhuman but impossible.
Gathering himself up, he prepared to make a spring, and in another
instant would have launched himself toward that rocking beam, if Cecile,
driven to extremity by the slow tottering of the floor upon which we
stood, had not shrieked:

"'And to save him you would leave us to perish?'

"He paused and gave one look. 'Yes!' he cried. 'God help you, but you
look like innocent women, while he--' The leap was made. He lay clinging
to the beam. His cousin, who had not fallen, cast one glance up; their
eyes met, and Isidor, as he was ca