He sprang from the bed, and signified the sincerity of his intention by fainting on the spot. * * * * * Three days afterwards, Colonel Brand was lying quite alone on his sofa--his first day up--reading, or rather telling himself that he was reading. Every sound startled him, causing him to relinquish his book and listen with deepening eyes; and sometimes a fancied voice in the street below would send flames of excitement shooting across his pallid face. Three days since the lawyer had left him; three days of doubt, and hope, and despair. Had she loved him? Was that calm good-by to him from a heart indifferent? or did it hide beneath its cold exterior the smoldering passion which sometimes her eyes had seemed to express? Dear Margaret! Generous girl! And memory took up her virtues one by one, and fondly turned them over, while fancy told him what his life might be with such a wife as she. And even while he mourned with fading hopes over the memory of her whom he had passionately loved as his Perdita, his chamber-door was briskly opened, and in walked Lawyer Davenport. "Good-morning, sir! Glad to see you up! In honor of the day, eh?" "Have you seen her?" "Ha! first question. Nothing about how I enjoyed my trip, or stood it after my illness; only 'Have you seen her?' No thanks to you for your polite inquiries after me--I _have_ seen her." "And--what have you to tell me?" "Come, now--what do you expect? You, who have such a poor opinion of the fair sex, shouldn't look for much from 'em." "Little enough would I expect from any other woman under the sun, but from Margaret Walsingham, all that makes a woman pure, right in heart, grand in spirit." "I found her at Mr. Stanhope's, ill and sorrowful----" "My poor child!" "Quite prostrated, and unfit for her duties--Mrs. Stanhope full of concern, the children out on the beach with their black nurse. You should have seen her, when they sent her down from her room to me." "I wish I had." "Her eyes couldn't have been fuller of love and pleasure if it had been you, instead of me; I never received such a beauty-glance in all my days! And her first words were twice as polite as yours, sir--they expressed her delight in seeing _me_, not inquiries about a third party. 'Oh, Mr. Davenport, I never thought of this kindness. Have you come to bid me good-by?' Not a word you see, about you, colonel; nor a thought either, I'll be bound. Ten to one if she would have brought you in at all to the conversation, if I hadn't asked her plump and plain, if she didn't mean to give the colonel his property, after all? "'Why,' says she, flashing a glance at me, to see if I meant it, and then turning her face away, 'have I not intrusted you with it, to give over to him? What obstacle can there be?'