s soon as the latter had withdrawn she threw oft her bonnet, went
to the overwhelmed young man, sat down beside him, put her arms around
him, and drew his head down to meet her own, as she said, caressingly:

"You did not expect me, love? And my arrival here overcomes you."

"I thought you had been killed in that railway collision," came in
hoarse and guttural tones from a throat that seemed suddenly parched to
ashes.

"Poor Herman! and you had rallied from that shock of grief; but was not
strong enough to sustain a shock of joy! I ought not to have given you
this surprise! But try now to compose yourself, and give me welcome. I
am here; alive, warm, loving, hungry even! a woman, and no specter risen
from the grave, although you look at me just as if I were one! Dear
Herman, kiss me! I have come a long way to join you!" she said, in a
voice softer than the softest notes of the cushat dove.

"How was it that you were not killed?" demanded the young man, with the
manner of one who exacted an apology for a grievous wrong.

"My dearest Herman, I came very near being crushed to death; all that
were in the same carriage with me perished. I was so seriously injured
that I was reported among the killed; but the report was contradicted in
the next day's paper."

"How was it that you were not killed, I asked you?"

"My dearest one, I suppose it was the will of Heaven that I should not
be. I do not know any other reason."

"Why did you not write and tell me you had escaped?"

"Dear Herman, how hoarsely you speak! And how ill you look! I fear you
have a very bad cold!" said the stranger tenderly.

"Why did you not write and tell me of your escape, I ask you? Why did
you permit me to believe for months that you were no longer in life?"

"Herman, I thought surely if you should have seen the announcement of my
death in one paper, you would see it contradicted, as it was, in half a
dozen others. And as for writing, I was incapable of that for months!
Among other injuries, my right hand was crushed, Herman. And that it has
been saved at all, is owing to a miracle of medical skill!"

"Why did you not get someone else to write, then?"

"Dear Herman, you forget! There was no one in our secret! I had no
confidante at all! Besides, as soon as I could be moved, my father took
me to Paris, to place me under the care of a celebrated surgeon there.
Poor father! he is dead now, Herman! He left me all his money. I am one
among the ri