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"It is no good," he groaned to himself. "I can do no more. I must wait till daylight." As he lay stretched out upon his back, panting heavily from weakness, it seemed to him that the roar of the falling water had redoubled, and the fancy came upon him that there was a tone of mocking triumph over his helplessness.
But before the sudden pang which shot through me at the sight of her beauty had subsided, her head had turned, her gaze had encountered mine; all the horror of the situation had burst upon her, and, instead of a haughty woman, drawn up to receive and trample upon the insinuations of another, I beheld, alas! a trembling, panting human creature, conscious that a sword hung above her head, and without a word to say why it should not fall and slay her.
When the goal is in sight, do we dwell on the hazard, the strained muscles, the blistered feet, and the fierce thirst the long race-course cost us? Who know that they are weary and spent, while the prize brightens, nears as they stretch panting to grasp it?
'You have seen and danced with Diane de Ribaumont, answered Eustacie, still coldly; 'but what of that? Let me go, Monsieur; you have cast me off already. 'I! when all this has been of your own seeking? 'Mine? cried Eustacie, panting with the struggle between her dignity and her passionate tears. 'I meddled not.
When we arrived at the buildings, panting and out of breath, they contained nothing but heaps of empty cartridge-shells and two dead Spaniards, shot through the head. The country all around us was thickly forested, so that it was very difficult to see any distance in any direction. The firing had now died out, but I was still entirely uncertain as to exactly what had happened.
An answering hail came distinctly back, followed immediately by a second shot. The agony of suspense was brief. A moment later the rock loomed into view, and the panting camels came to a halt before the entrance to the cavern. "Oh, you've come back safe?" exclaimed Melton coolly, as he came forward with a smoking rifle in his hand. "I've had a brush with a party of Abyssinians.
"That's the style!" he shouted in triumph, as they drew up, panting and dripping well over the rise from the crossing. "Close thing, though! Did you get your feet wet?" "Did you get your feet wet!" That was all, when I was expecting every form of concern imaginable. For a moment I felt indignant at Mac's recklessness and lack of concern, and said severely, "You shouldn't take such risks."
She staggered up to them, panting, exhausted, her breath coming in gulping sobs. For a moment she could not speak. Her dress was torn; her waist was ripped so that it exposed her throat and shoulder; and the front of the waist and her face were stained with blood. Her black eyes shone like a madwoman's.
To stoop for it and pick it up to run for the back door, which was so close by to unlock and open it and then to slip through it into the house was but the work of a few seconds and now here she was once again in her room, like the hunted beast back in its lair panting, quivering, ready to fall but safe, at all events. No one had seen her, of that she felt sure.
Every day he inquired what could be done for her, every evening he took a basket-load of the goods she required from the rue Comtesse d'Artois; and it excited the pity of all beholders to see this weakly young man, panting and sweating under his heavy burden, refusing any reward, and labouring merely for the pleasure of obliging, and from natural kindness of heart!
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