ke of--Eustis Landing, wasn't
it?" said Winthrop.

"Oh, you _are_ better!"

Her relief showed itself in these words. But much more in her face; its
strained tension gave way, her tears fell. She dried them in silence.

"Because I can speak of something outside of this infernal bog? Yes, I
shall get you safely through now. And myself also. But--it hasn't been
easy!"

"Oh, I know that."

"I beg your pardon, no, you don't; not the half."

In a moment or two more he announced that he was beginning to see
"something besides fireworks." She still continued, however, to direct
him.

The swamp had been growing more open. At length the channel brought them
to a spectral lake, with a few dead trees in it here and there hung with
white moss. "I remember this place, the creek opens out just opposite.
_At last_ it's over!"

"And at last I can see. But I must take this thing off; it binds me."
And he unloosed and threw off her lace scarf.

They found the creek and entered. "It seems strange to see solid ground
again, doesn't it?" he said.

"Then you _can_ see it?"

"As well as ever."

The creek brought them to a waste that was open to the sky.

"Now we can breathe," he said; "I feel as though I should never want to
be under a tree branch again!"

It was not very dark; there was a moon somewhere behind the gray clouds
that closely covered the sky. The great storm had gone westward,
carrying with it the tornado and the rain, and now a cool, moderate,
New-England-feeling wind was beginning to blow.

Winthrop glanced back. The great trees of the Monnlungs loomed up in a
long dark line against the sky; from the low level of the boat in the
flat waste they looked like a line of mountains.

"All the same, you know," he said, contradictorily, "it was very
beautiful in there."

The creek was wide; he went on rapidly. He was quite himself again.
"You look fearfully worn," he said, after a while.

"Must we have all these torches now?" She spoke with irritation, she
could not get away from their light.

"Not if you object to them." He extinguished all but one. "Now put on
some of those wraps; it's cold."

"I do not need them."

"Don't be childish." (There was no doubt but that he was himself again.)
"Here, let me help you on with this cloak."

She submitted.

It took them three-quarters of an hour to reach the landing.

"This is it, I presume," he said, as he saw the dim outlines of two
white houses at a little