But at her first step something or some one came rushing down the cliff
behind her. She gave a terrified cry, opened her eyes, and recoiled
from the chasm. A moment later she had turned, trembling, crying,
utterly unnerved, to find Mick leaping round her.
"Mick!" she said tremulously--"Mick!" Then a voice called to her; and,
looking up, she saw Hannah, her hair dishevelled, her eyes still
streaming, the yellow envelope of a telegram held in the corner of her
apron.
"The fright you gave me, Miss Clodagh!" she began. "Sure, I'd nivver
find you at all, only for the dog!"
Then she stopped, looking sharply at her mistress.
"Miss Clodagh, what is it all? Come home!--come home, my lamb!" Her
voice, husky from tears, dropped suddenly.
But Clodagh still stood white and shaking. She had been too near the
verge to be easily recalled.
"Sure, God's ways are quare, but 'tisn't for us to be judgin'; maybe
He's saved worse, Miss Clodagh! Keep thinkin' that! Maybe He's saved
worse!"
Clodagh covered her eyes.
"But here's somethin' for you. God help us! I was forgettin'! Will you
be seein' what is in it?" She came slowly forward, extending her arm.
Clodagh took the telegram. Without thought or interest she tore it
open, and her eyes passed mechanically over the written words. Then
suddenly it slipped from between her fingers, blew a little way across
the close grass, and fluttered down over the edge of the chasm.
As it disappeared, she turned. Her face was entirely without colour;
her eyes had the dazed look of one who is confronted with a great
light.
"Hannah!" she cried--"Hannah! there is a God after all!--there is a
God!" She swayed suddenly; and the old servant, rushing forward, caught
her in her arms.
THE END
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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