She has escaped from her friends, and
I meet bring her back to them."
He half lifted her as he spoke; and the boatman, glad enough to
get rid of one sick of the plague, helped her into the batteau.
The lady was not insensible, as might be supposed, after her cold
bath, but extremely wide-awake, and gazing around her with her great,
black, shining eyes. But she made no resistance; either she was
too faint or frightened for that, and suffered herself to be
hoisted about, "passive to all changes." Ormiston spread his
cloak in the stern of the boat, and laid her tenderly upon it,
and though the beautiful, wistful eyes were solemnly and
unwinkingly fixed on his face, the pale, sweet lips parted not -
uttered never a word. The wet bridal robes were drenched and
dripping about her, the long dark hair hung in saturated masses
over her neck and arms, and contrasted vividly with a face,
Ormiston thought at once, the whitest, most beautiful, and most
stonelike he had ever seen.
"Thank you, my man; thank you, my lord," said Ormiston, preparing
to push off.
Rochester, who had been leaning from the barge, gazing in mingled
curiosity, wonder, and admiration at the lovely face, turned now
to her champion.
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