She pressed one hand hard upon her heart, and gasped for breath.

He sank at once on his knees, crying, "O, forgive me, Rosa! I was beside myself." But she gave no sign of hearing him; and seeing her reel backward into a chair, with pale lips and closing eyes, he hastened to summon Tulee.
Such remorse came over him that he longed to wait for her returning consciousness.

But he remembered that his long absence must excite surprise in the mind of his bride, and might, perhaps, connect itself with the mysterious singer of the preceding evening.

Goaded by contending feelings, he hurried through the footpaths whence he had so often kissed his hand to Rosa in fond farewell, and hastily mounted his horse without one backward glance.
Before he came in sight of the plantation, the perturbation of his mind had subsided, and he began to think himself a much-injured individual.

"Plague on the caprices of women!" thought he.