Ernest took my fan from my hand and fanned me without intermission, or I think I must have fainted.
As I sat with downcast eyes, whose drooping lashes were heavy with unshed tears, I saw a glass of water held before me by an unsteady hand.
I looked up and saw Richard Clyde, his student's robe of flowing black silk gathered up by his left arm, who had literally forced his way through a triple row of men.

We were very near the platform, there being but one row of pews between.
I drank the water eagerly, gratefully.

Even before those blistering words were uttered, I had felt as if a glass of cold water would be worth all the gems of the East; now it was life itself.
"Are you ill, Gabriella ?" whispered Mrs.Linwood, who with Edith sat directly in front, and whose eyes had watched anxiously the motions of Richard.

"Ah! I see this heat is killing you." "_That is she_, I do believe," hissed the serpent tongue behind me.
"Hush, she may hear you." All was again still around me, the stillness of the multitudinous sea, for every wave of life heaved restlessly, producing a kind of murmur, like that of rustling leaves in an autumnal forest.

Then a sound loud as the thunders of the roaring ocean came rushing on the air.