"Mother, 'tis a gentleman that would have speech of Father. Will you
speak with him?"
Isoult lifted her eyes, and saw behind Kate a gentleman, it seemed to
her, of some thirty years or more, tall and spare, indeed, very thin and
worn, hollow-cheeked and sunken-eyed, with long dark brown hair, a long
beard lying low upon his breast, and a moustache curling round his upper
lip. A stranger--at least, she knew neither his face nor his name.
"Sir," she said, "I am sorry mine husband is not within at this present;
but if it should please you to wait a little season, I am assured--"
"That he shall not be long," she was about to say: but she never got any
further. Her speech was cut in two by a sharp, sudden cry from behind
her, that must have rung through every room in the house, and that broke
from the lips of Thekla Rose.
"Robin! Robin! Robin!"
It seemed to Isoult for a moment as though her very heart stood still.
Was it thus that God had given her its desire? Was this white, worn,
bearded man verily "our Robin," who had passed away from them so very
different? She seemed neither to know nor to see any thing, till she
felt two arms clasped around her, and a voice, that no time nor prison
could wholly alter, called her to herself, with--"Mother, I think you
have not forgot me?" And then she awoke, and her heart was loosed, and
her eyes with it. She bowed her head down upon Robin's breast, and wept
passionately. Verily God had visited them! God had heard their cry,
and had given them back their darling.
What followed was confusion. Thekla's cry brought her mother down in
haste. Kate and Walter ran to the new-comer, hailing him as "Dear
Brother Robin!" while little Frances hung back shyly, and had to be
coaxed to come. Dr Thorpe said he would never have known him, had he
not been helped; but Robin answered that "he was then the better off of
the two, for he knew him the minute he stepped within." Esther said she
thought she could have guessed at him with a little time and
consideration.
"I am very glad to see you, Mrs Esther," said he, "for I did never look
again to see any that were bound with me that night."
"Then thou lookest not," answered Isoult, "to see Mr Rose, which I trust
shall be in some few minutes."
"I did not, in good sooth," said he, "only I dared not to ask."
While he spoke, they heard John's hand upon the latch.