Coniston, Complete

the state. That Monday, too, it will be remembered, dawned in storm, the sleet hissing in the wide throats of the centre-chimneys, and bearing down great boughs of t

n, released a shaft of light that shot across the white gro

thr

burning now with a shame that was insupportable. Now that she was there, beside him, her strength failed her, and her courage-courage that she had been storing for this dread undertaking thr

ayed the passion which h

that she was alone with him, and in bodily terror of him. She turned to the d

"I did not mean to come.

r him. More unaccountable still, she did not move, now that she

mind to, Cynthy-if

he faltered. It was not, at all the wa

took' Moses

think I came here to spea

took-Moses,

uld almost have smiled at this we

mmediately hated hers

ok that Worth

s jea

discuss Mr. Worthi

e," said he. "Made up your mind to t

he said, and added, the words seeming to slip

m-intereste

, and the storm, and her errand even, forgetting that Jake Whe

k her face, and he bent over her as though searching it for a

, Cynthy-was it?

ed it such," she ans

d itself against the door,

t it c

ht to have known that, and you shou

repeated, "y-you

es

t frien

delicious fright as she glanced at him shyly. Surely there had

d enough to be anything more," he

ed even to be a f

ton?" he persisted. "

," cried Cynthia, desperately, and

ends with W

barely heard above the gus

able power, only to be appalled by it, and the mountain-storm without se

im, I'd have killed him. Cynthy, I

r wo

In that moment she was like a seed flying in the storm above the mountain spruces whither, she knew not, cared not. There was one thought that drifted across the chaos like a blue light of the spirit: Could she control the storm? Could she say w

ry you-m-marry you. Then you give me that book-I hain't had much education, but it come across me if you wa

, Jet

gleamed in the lantern's rays-a silver locket. Cynthia scarcely saw it. Her blood was throbbing in her temples,

o you know why I came

ted me, didn't you? Wante

come to you for that

ynthy-love me

s arms, and had not fled? And yet she must go th

speak to you about the

d been struck, his hand t

wn me

foolish enough to believe that Fletcher Bartlett or Sam Price planned this thing? N

the light of a new adm

d it-d

red, a little de

d you know it, Cynthy?" H

nthia, desperately, "kn

ught you was

id you do t

knowed it-th-tho

these men are do

in' a little mite

't touch me!" she cried, when he would have taken her in his arms aga

. Isaac Worthington had been impelled to reveal his plans and aspirations, but Jethro Bass was as powerless in this supreme moment of his li

dd and-and Lyman Hull, who is a drunkard and a vagabond, to come in and vote for those who are not fit to hold

led at the very magnitude of his accomplishment, astonished at the secrecy he had maintained. She had heard that his name had been mentioned in the meeting at the house of Moses

lous-but merely ignorant: a man who was capable of such love as she felt was in him, a man w

as sure of it, or I would not have come to you. Oh, Je

hat she asked was impossible. That wind which he himself had loosed, which was to topple over insti

rew her hands together, and it was as if her heart had ceased to beat. Sorrow and anger a

cried hoars

me again," she said, an

now that she had left something behind

ich he used to stand and the Bible from which he used to preach have remained objects of veneration in Coniston to this day. A fortnight later many tearful faces gazed after the Truro coach a