Perhaps the loveliness of the scene and the
recollections connected with it, perhaps the warm and mellow sunset,
perhaps a temporary weakness in himself, had softened his feelings, and
shaken the firmness of his resolution, to leave Ellen to be happy with his
rival. His strong affections rose up against his reason, whispering that
bliss--on earth and in heaven, through time and eternity--might yet be his
lot with her. It is impossible to conceive of the flood of momentary joy
which the bare admission of such a possibility sent through his frame;
and, just when the tide was highest in his heart, a soft little hand was
laid upon his own, and, starting, he beheld Ellen at his side.
Her illness, since the commencement of which Fanshawe had not seen her,
had wrought a considerable, but not a disadvantageous, change in her
appearance. She was paler and thinner; her countenance was more
intellectual, more spiritual; and a spirit did the student almost deem
her, appearing so suddenly in that solitude. There was a quick vibration
of the delicate blood in her cheek, yet never brightening to the glow of
perfect health; a tear was glittering on each of her long, dark eyelashes;
and there was a gentle tremor through all her frame, which compelled her,
for a little space, to support herself against the oak.
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