Then Clayton turned back slowly toward the cabin. His heart
was filled with happiness. The woman he loved was safe.
He wondered by what manner of miracle she had been
spared. To see her alive seemed almost unbelievable.
As he approached the cabin he saw Jane coming out.
When she saw him she hurried forward to meet him.
"Jane!" he cried, "God has been good to us, indeed. Tell
me how you escaped--what form Providence took to save
you for--us."
He had never before called her by her given name. Forty-eight
hours before it would have suffused Jane with a soft glow of
pleasure to have heard that name from Clayton's lips--now
it frightened her.
"Mr. Clayton," she said quietly, extending her hand, "first
let me thank you for your chivalrous loyalty to my dear father.
He has told me how noble and self-sacrificing you have
been. How can we repay you!"
Clayton noticed that she did not return his familiar salutation,
but he felt no misgivings on that score. She had been
through so much. This was no time to force his love upon
her, he quickly realized.
"I am already repaid," he said. "Just to see you and Professor
Porter both safe, well, and together again. I do not
think that I could much longer have endured the pathos of
his quiet and uncomplaining grief.
"It was the saddest experience of my life, Miss Porter; and
then, added to it, there was my own grief--the greatest I
have ever known.
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