As a timid child was she at these times, humble, loving, gentle;
she felt as if she were on the threshold of the next world, that the
next moment might be her last. Others have been known to experience the
same dread in a thunder-storm; and, to be thus brought, as it were, face
to face with death, takes the spirit out of people.
He stood, patiently holding her. Every time the thunder burst above
their heads, he could feel her heart beat against his. One of her arms
was round him; the other he held; all wet it was with fear. He did not
speak; he only clasped her closer every now and then, that she might be
reminded of her shelter.
Twenty minutes or so, and the violence of the storm abated. The
lightning grew less frequent, the thunder distant and more distant. At
length the sound wholly ceased, and the lightning subsided into that
harmless sheet lightning which is so beautiful to look at in the far-off
horizon.
"It is over," he whispered.
She lifted her head from its resting place. Her blue eye was bright with
excitement, her delicate cheek was crimson, her golden hair fell in a
dishevelled mass around.
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