relief. During these anxious moments, she became more than usually
conscious of the insulated situation in which he and all who were dearest
to her heart were placed. The feelings of a wife prevailed. Quitting the
side of the acclivity, she began to walk slowly along the path her husband
had taken, until apprehension insensibly urged her into a quicker
movement. She had paused only when she stood nearly in the centre of the
clearing, on the eminence where her father had halted that evening to
contemplate the growing improvement of his estate.

Here her steps were suddenly arrested, for she thought a form was issuing
from the forest, at that interesting spot which her eyes had never ceased
to watch. It proved to be no more than the passing shadow of a cloud
denser than common, which threw the body of its darkness on the trees, and
a portion of its outline on the ground near the margin of the wood. Just
at this instant, the recollection that she had incautiously left the
postern open flashed upon her mind, and, with feelings divided between
husband and children, she commenced her return, in order to repair a
neglect, to which habit, no less than prudence, imparted a high degree of
culpability. The eyes of the mother, for the feelings of that sacred
character were now powerfully uppermost, were fastened on the ground, as
she eagerly picked her way along the uneven surface; and, so engrossed was
her mind by the omission of duty with which she was severely reproaching
herself, that they drank in objects without conveying distinct or
intelligible images to her brain.

Notwithstanding the one engrossing thought of the moment, something met
her eye that caused even the vacant organ to recoil, and every fibre in
her frame to tremble with terror. There was a moment in which delirium
nearly heightened terror to madness. Reflection came only when Ruth had
reached the distance of many feet from the spot where this startling