'God bless you, my darling!' he exclaimed, as all his soul seemed suddenly to go forth to her, and he would have drawn her to him; but she thought of Annot Drummond, and fell back a pace. 'Hester,' said he upbraidingly, 'will you not accord me one kiss, darling?' She grew pale now, for she feared that her welcome had been more cordial than he had any right to expect; but the circumstances were peculiar, their place and mode of meeting alike strange and unexpected; but it was impossible for her not to guess, to read in his eyes, in fact, all the tender passion of love, esteem, and kinship that filled his heart for her now. 'How well you are looking, Hester, after all you must have suffered--some of the old rose's hue is back to your cheek, darling.' 'Don't speak thus, Roland--I--I----' she faltered. 'Why not, Hester? You loved me, I know, even as I loved you.' 'Before that beautiful little hypocrite and adventuress came,' said she, with quiet bitterness, 'I certainly did love you, Roland----' 'And love me still, Hester?' 'Do I look as if I had let the worm in the bud feed on my damask cheek?' said she, with a little gasping laugh; 'has my hair grown thin or white? How vain you are, Cousin Roland!' 'No, Hester' (how he loved to utter her name!); 'though I admit to having been a hopeless and thoughtless fool--no worse; but, forgive me, dear Hester; I ask you in the name of your good old father, who so loved us both, and in memory of our pleasant past at Merlwood.' She made no answer; but her downcast eyes were full of tears; her breast was heaving, and her lips were quivering now. 'It ought not to be hard to forgive you, Roland, as you never said, even in that pleasant past, that you loved me; and yet, perhaps--but I must go now,' she said, interrupting herself, as she turned round wearily and vaguely. 'Go where?' he asked. 'But how came you to be here--here in Cairo--and whither are you going?' 'To where I reside,' she replied, with a soft smile; for, with all her love for him, and with all her supreme joy at meeting him again thus safe and sound, and in a manner so unprecedentedly peculiar, she was not disposed quite to strike her colours and yield at once. 'Reside!' thought Roland, with a flush of anger in his heart; 'as companion, governess, nursing sister, or--what?' 'To where I reside with Maude,' she added, almost reading his thoughts. 'Is Maude here, too?' 'Yes; we came together in quest of you and Jack. Oh! where is he?--well and safe, too, I am sure, or you would not be looking so bright. Maude left her home under a mistake--the victim of a conspiracy, hatched, as we know now, by that wretched creature Sharpe.' 'And she is here--here in Cairo?' 'Yes.' 'This seems miraculous!' 'Come with me to Maude.' 'And then to Jack--to poor Jack, whom the sight of her beloved face will surely make well and strong again.'