'Then I should like you to accompany me, Elfie; having originally
sprung from the family too.'
'I don't like going where death is so emphatically present. I'll
stay by the horses whilst you go in; they may get loose.'
'What nonsense! I had no idea your sentiments were so flimsily
formed as to be perturbed by a few remnants of mortality; but stay
out, if you are so afraid, by all means.'
'Oh no, I am not afraid; don't say that.'
She held miserably to his arm, thinking that, perhaps, the
revelation might as well come at once as ten minutes later, for
Stephen would be sure to accompany his friend to his horse.
At first, the gloom of the vault, which was lighted only by a
couple of candles, was too great to admit of their seeing anything
distinctly; but with a further advance Knight discerned, in front
of the black masses lining the walls, a young man standing, and
writing in a pocket-book.
Knight said one word: 'Stephen!'
Stephen Smith, not being in such absolute ignorance of Knight's
whereabouts as Knight had been of Smith's instantly recognized his
friend, and knew by rote the outlines of the fair woman standing
behind him.
Stephen came forward and shook him by the hand, without speaking.
'Why have you not written, my boy?' said Knight, without in any
way signifying Elfride's presence to Stephen. To the essayist,
Smith was still the country lad whom he had patronized and tended;
one to whom the formal presentation of a lady betrothed to himself
would have seemed incongruous and absurd.
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