The prayer ended, Maddy still sat upon the floor, while over her pale face the lamplight faintly flickered, showing the dark lines beneath her eyes and the tear-stains on her cheek. Without, the storm still was raging, and the wintry rain, mingled with sleet and snow, beat piteously against the curtained windows, while the wind howled mournfully as it shook the door, and sweeping past the cottage went screaming over the hill. But Maddy heard nothing of the tumult. She had brought a pillow from the bed-room, and placing it upon the chair, sat down again upon the floor and rested her head upon it. She did not even know that her pet cat had crept up beside her, purring contentedly, and occasionally licking her hair, much less did she hear above the storm the swift tread of horses’ feet as some one came dashing down the road, the rider pausing an instant as he caught a glimpse of the cottage lamp, and then hurrying on to the public-house beyond, where the hostler frowned moodily at being called out to care for the horse of a stranger, who went back on foot to where the cottage lamp shone a beacon light through the inky darkness. The stranger reached the little gate, and undoing the fastening, went hurrying up the walk, his step upon the crackling snow catching Maddy’s ear at last and making her wonder who could be coming there on such a night as this. It was probably Charlie Green, she said, and with a feeling of impatience at being intruded upon she rose to her feet just as the door turned upon its hinges, letting in a powerful draught of wind which extinguished the light, and left her in total darkness. But it did not matter. Maddy had caught a sound, a peculiar cough, which froze the blood in her veins and made her quake with terror quite as much as if the footsteps hurrying towards her had been the footsteps of the dead, instead of belonging, as she knew they did, to Guy Remington—who, with garments saturated with rain, felt for her in the darkness, and found her where from faintness she had crouched again beside the chair, and drawing her closely to him in a passionate, almost painful embrace, said, so tenderly, so lovingly: “Maddy, my darling, my own! We shall never be parted again.” CHAPTER XXIII. LUCY.