Then
footsteps sounded in the corridor, and Sir John and the Colonel
smilingly turned their eyes toward the open doorway. Dale, turning his
eyes in the same direction, started violently.
The newcomer was Mr. Barradine.
He shook hands with the gentlemen at the table, who had both got up
to receive him; he talked to them pleasantly and chaffingly, and there
was more laughter; then he nodded to Dale; then he said he was much
obliged to the secretary for giving him the chair, and then he sat
down.
Dale's thoughts were like those of a drowning sailor, when through the
darkness and the storm he hears the voice of approaching aid. He had
been going down in the deep, cruel waters, with the longed-for lights
of home, the adored face of his wife, the dreaded gates of hell, all
dancing wildly before his eyes--and now. Breath again, hope again,
life again.
He listened, but did not trouble to understand. It was dreamlike,
glorious, sublime. The illustrious visitor had alluded to the fact
that Jack, the nice young man, was a connection of his; and had
explained that, hearing from Jack of to-day's appointment, he
determined to go right down there and beard the lions in their den. He
had also spoken of a nephew of Sir John's, who was coming to have a
bang at the Abbey partridges in September.
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