Of what passed
afterwards she had no recollection. She neither knew how
she had got into the canoe, nor what means the Indian
had taken to secure her approach to the schooner. She
had no consciousness of having been removed to the bark
of the Canadian, nor did she even remember having risen
and gazed through the foliage on the vessel at her side;
but she presumed, the chill air of morning having partially
restored pulsation, she had moved instinctively from her
recumbent position to the spot in which her spectre-like
countenance had been perceived by Fuller. The first moment
of her returning reason was that when, standing on the
deck of the schooner, she found herself so unexpectedly
clasped to the heart of her lover.
Twilight had entirely passed away when Miss de Haldimar
completed her sad narrative; and already the crew, roused
to exertion by the swelling breeze, were once more engaged
in weighing the anchor, and setting and trimming the
sails of the schooner, which latter soon began to shoot
round the concealing headland into the opening of the
Sinclair. A deathlike silence prevailed throughout the
decks of the little bark, as her bows, dividing the waters
of the basin that formed its source, gradually immerged
into the current of that deep but narrow river; so narrow,
indeed, that from its centre the least active of the
mariners might have leaped without difficulty to either
shore.
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