Alice Wilde: The Raftsman's Daughter — page 58: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

5 ALICE WILDE. of the young man, as they witnessed the silent suffering of their darling. His going down the river without his expected company had cheated Philip out of the revelation he had desired to make; and Alice, with that excessive delicacy of some timid ovale girls, had not even confided her secret to ‘her good old nurse. Much better it would have been for her peace of mind, had she told all to her friends—her love and her fears Then, if they had seen good reason for her apprehensions, they might have chased the matter down, at whatever trouble, and put her out of suspense. But she did not do it. She shut the growing terror in her heart where it fed upon her life day by cay. There was no regular communication between Wilde’s mill and the lower country, and in the winter what little there had been was cut off The lovely, lingering Indian-summer days, in the midst of which the two voyagers had set out, were over, and ice closed the river the very day after the return of Ben. A sudden agony of hope and fear convulsed the heart of Alice, when her father entered the house one day, and announced Ben’s arrival. “Did he not bring me a letter? was there no letter for you, father ?” : _ It would be so natural that he should write, at least to her father, some message of good wishes and announcement of his safe journey—if she could see his own handwriting, she would be satisfied that all was well. | “Thar was none for me. If Ben got a letter for you, I s’pose he’ll tell you so, as he’s coming in with some things.” “Have you any thing for me—any message or letter ?” It was the first time she had-met Ben, face to face, since that never-to-be-forgotten night of the house-warming; but now he looked her in the eyes, without any shrinking, ae it appeared to her as if the shadow which had lain upon him was lifted. He certainly looked more cheerful than he had done since the day of Philip’s unexpected arrival at the new house. Was it because he felt that an enemy was out of the way? Alice could not tell; she waited for him to speak, as the prisoner waits for the verdict of a jury. “Thar’ ain’t any letter, Miss Alice,” he replied, “ but that’s COMmicbooks.€©