who had won not merely
her earnest gratitude, but profound respect and admiration, she was
conscious of a peculiar clinging tenderness for Mr. Lindsay, which
rendered the prospect of his departure the keenest trial that had
hitherto overtaken her; and when she thought of the immense distance
that must soon divide them, the laborious nature of the engagement
that would detain him perhaps a lifetime in the far East, her own dim
uncertain future looked dark and dreary. The blazing sun went down at
last, the fiery radiance of the pulpit window faded, and the birds
that frequented the quiet sheltered enclosure sought their perches in
the thickest foliage where they were wont to sleep. But there was no
abatement of the heat. The air was sulphurous, and its inspiration
was about as refreshing as a draught from Phlegethon; while the
distant occasional growl had grown into a frequent thunderous
muttering that deepened with every repetition, and already began to
shake the windows in its reverberations. Two ladies in deep mourning,
who had been hovering like black spectres around a granite
sarcophagus, where they deposited and arranged the customary Sabbath
arkja of white flowers, concluded their loving tribute to the
sleeper, and left the churchyard; and save the continual challenge
of the thunder drawing nearer, the perfect stillness ominous and
dread, which always precedes a violent storm, seemed brooding in
fearful augury above the home of the dead.

With one foot resting on Hero's neck, Regina sat leaning against the
window facing, very pale, but bravely fighting this her first great
battle with sorrow. Her face was eloquent with mute suffering, and
her eyes were full of shadows that left no room for tears.

"Going away to India, perhaps for ever!" was the burden of this woe
that blanched even her lovely coral lips until their curves were lost
in the pallor of her rounded cheek and dimpled chin. "Going away to
India;" like some fateful rune presaging dire disaster, it seemed
traced in characters of flame across the glowing sky, and over the
stony monuments that studded the necropolis.

Suddenly Hero lifted his head, sniffed the air, and rose, and almost
simultaneously Regina heard the sound of footsteps on the gravel
outside, and the low utterances of a voice which she recognized as
Hannah's.

"I never told you before, because I was afraid that in the end you
would cheat me out of my share of the profit. But I have watc