‘I’ve come!  I’ve come!’ she cried, in wild eagerness.  ’Have you not expected me?  I’m home—­home once more.  Dearest—­lover—­husband—­I’m here, never to leave you!’

I only gasped forth—­’Evelyn!’

I knew not but it was an illusion.

Then she threw herself upon me, and covered me with kisses, uttered a volume of passionate endearments, entwined her arms about me in all tender embraces.  I reasoned with myself that it was a dream, and would not stir lest it should dissolve.

She stood above me, and again I saw that light in her eyes.  Then for the first time I understood its import.  Oh! the strange, deep, glorious light of love and resolute devotion.

I rose falteringly, and asked in feeble accents,—­’Is it you, Evelyn?  Have you indeed come?’

’Yes, yes, your Evelyn at last,—­come to your arms and your heart.  Your own Evelyn, so long unworthy of you.  Will you receive me?’

I but threw my arms around her, and sank down with her on my breast.  Nature exhausted itself in the intensity of that embrace.  Language was denied to emotion.  For some moments she lay like a child, nestling to my heart, then suddenly started up and disappeared in the hall.  Again I thought it was a dream, and that it had fled.  She reappeared, bearing a small casket, which in a quick, frantic sort of way she thrust on the table, opened and pulled out gold pieces, jewels and bank notes, flinging them down, some on the table and some on the floor, exclaiming, ’See, you ruined yourself for me, and I have come to repay you.  Look, all these your Evelyn brings to testify to her love.  The children!’ she exclaimed, as she threw out the last contents,—­’where are they?  Come, show me.’  She seized the lamp, and, grasping my arm, dragged me in my half-bewildered state to the next apartment, where the infants lay sleeping.  She flung herself eagerly but tenderly upon them, and devoured them with kisses.  ‘Now you will love them, for my sake,’ she said; and, for the first time since discovering that she loved me not, I bestowed upon them a voluntary paternal caress—­I bowed over them and gently kissed their foreheads.  Her love for them had restored them to my heart.

Then again, with her wild, impetuous manner, she led me back to the other room.  I sat upon the sofa and drew her to my breast.  She lay passive a moment, then started up and paced the floor, with rapid utterances, broken with half sobs and half laughter.  She returned to me, and again repeated this, till finally interrupted with a violent fit of coughing, occasioned, as I supposed, by excitement.

‘Be calm, Evelyn,’ I said.  ’Come and lie in my arms.  This joy is too great for me to realize.  I must feel you on my bosom to convince me that I am not deceived.’