"Go to the house, Bruno, go and bring help," he said pantingly, for he was
well-nigh overcome by his exertions, and the dog bounded away in the
direction of the house.
"Lord, grant it may come speedily," ejaculated the young man, kneeling
beside the apparently lifeless form of her he loved so well. "Oh, my
darling, have those sweet eyes closed forever?" he cried in anguish,
wiping the water from her face, and chafing her cold hands in his. "Elsie
my love, my life, my all! oh! I would have died to save you!"
Enna had been missed almost immediately, and Calhoun, Arthur and several
servants at once set out in different directions in search of her.
Arthur and Pomp got upon the right scent, followed her to Ion, and joined
by Mr. Travilla, soon traced her through the garden and shrubbery down to
the lake, coming upon the scene of the catastrophe, or rather of the
rescue, but a moment after Bruno left.
"Why, what is this?" exclaimed Mr. Travilla in alarm, "is it Elsie? can
she have been in the water? Oh, my child, my darling!"
Instantly he was down upon the grass by her side, assisting Lester's
efforts to restore her to consciousness.
For a moment she engrossed the attention of all, to the utter exclusion
from their thoughts of poor Enna, for whom none of them entertained any
great amount of affection.
"She lives! her heart beats! she will soon recover!" Arthur said
presently, "see, a faint color is coming into her cheek. Run, Pomp, bring
blankets and more help; they must be carried at once to the house."
He turned to his aunt, leaving Mr. Travilla and Lester to attend to Elsie.
Enna seemed gone; he could not be sure that life was not extinct. Perhaps
it were better so, but he would not give up till every possible effort had
been made to restore her.
Both ladies were speedily conveyed to the house, Elsie, already conscious,
committed to the care of her mother and Aunt Chloe, while Arthur, Dr.
Barton and others, used every exertion for Enna's resuscitation. They were
at length successful in fanning to a flame the feeble spark of life that
yet remained, but fever supervened, and for weeks afterward she was very
ill.
Elsie kept her bed for a day, then took her place in the family again,
looking quite herself except a slight paleness. No; a close observer might
have detected another change; a sweet glad light in the beautiful brown
eyes that was not there before; full of peaceful content and quiet
happiness as her young life had been.
Lester's words of passionate love had reached the ear that seemed closed
to all earthly sounds; they were heard as in a dream, but afterward
recalled with a full apprehension of their reality and of all they meant
to her and to him.
Months ago she had read the same sweet story in his eyes, but how sweeter
far it was to have heard it from his lips.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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