cousin in her way homeward. The rustic seat in the
centre of the coppice was still unoccupied, and he began to fear that
something had transpired to prevent her from coming. It was no use to
listen for the sounds of her light, advancing footsteps; for the Dee
made so loud and incessant a sough as it tumbled from the steep bank
that helped to form the Nut-hole, that it drowned all lesser sounds.

He was, however, soon made conscious that there were sounds which no
sough of tumbling waters could drown; for, on a sudden, neither remote
nor suppresed, a fierce, a pitiful cry, like that of one in some dread
life-peril, struck upon his ears, succeeded by the breaking asunder of
the boughs of trees, and then a plunge in the water--a heavy plunge,
that made itself heard above the monotonous murmur of the falling flood.
Astonished, almost alarmed, he rose, and was hastening through the
thicket toward the Nut-hole, whence the noise had proceeded, when, as he
was about to cross the track that led from the manse to the main road to
Aberdeen, he beheld flying toward him a dark-mantled figure: he knew it
at once. Her hands stretched toward him, her face ghastly with the
death-white of intense horror, Barbara staggered toward him, and with a
sharp, short gasp, as if she dreaded to give utterance to deep fear by a
louder sound, she fainted at his very feet.

He thought no more of the Nut-hole, or of what might have happened
there, absorbed in his solicitude for his beloved cousin, but his
endeavors to restore her to animation were fruitless. The manse lay not
two hundred yards distant; so at such a juncture, regardless of what the
consequences might be to himself, he bore her in his arms; and not
without some difficulty, for the track was narrow and broken up, and the
night had darkened with falling rain. He reached the house. Fortunately,
there was no one in the parlor but Miss Henny; and the startled maiden,
seeing a stranger bearing the body of her niece, would have screamed,
had he not at once whispered his own name, briefly explained what had
happened, and entreated her to befriend them.

"Gae awa', gae awa', laddie," said she, as she quickly brought some
vinegar from the sideboard and bathed her niece's brow with the
refreshing liquid. "My brither maunna see you; nor, if I can help it,
sall he know acht o' this. Gae awa', Johnny dear; he'll be back, belive.
She's beginning to revive. I'll get her to bed, and tell him she's too