Chapter XXXI: Annella’s Return

“For the soul of a sinner
Let masses be said;
The sin shall be nameless,
And nameless the maid.”

Long and fearful was the watch kept by poor Tabitha Tabs, who had stationed herself at the back gate of the lawn to await Annella’s return. As hour after hour passed away she grew more and more anxious. Where could the strange girl be? When would she come back? Would she ever come back? If not, what would be the consequences? Tabitha shuddered even to conjecture.

At length, when she had grown almost hysterical with suspense, anxiety, and terror, she was startled by seeing a light rising in the distance. It was the burning prison! It was too far off for her to hear the cries of “Fire!” or even the alarm-bells, so she could not know what building was in flames; but the fascination of the fire, lighting up the midnight sky, kept her gazing open-eyed and open-mouthed, and forgetful of all her causes of anxiety. She would even have called her fellow-servants to share the delight of this spectacle, but that she feared they would question how she came to be up and watching, and might thus discover the absence of Annella, who might even return while they were all enjoying the pageantry of this illuminated midnight sky.

While she still gazed upon the scene, with these thoughts revolving through her mind, there was a sharp rap at the gate, followed by the voice of Annella, wildly demanding admittance.

“Lord sake, Miss Annella, I am glad you have come at last! I never spent such an anxious night in all my life. Wherever have you been? And you shall never go out in this way again with _my_ connivance! And can you tell me what house that is a-fire?” inquired Tabitha, as she unbolted the gate, and put out her hand to draw in the returning fugitive.

But the hand she took was burning hot, and the words that replied to her were wild and incoherent.

Tabitha could not see the face of Annella, but she was greatly alarmed, and holding the hand of the excited girl, she hurried her on to the house, up the back stairs and into her chamber. There she struck a light and looked at Annella’s face. That face was fearful to behold. The cheeks were burning with fever; the eyes were blazing with frenzy.

“Good Lord! the girl is delirious!” cried Tabitha, in affright.

But, panic-stricken as she was, she had the presence of mind to undress Annella and place her in the bed, and put away all her clothing, and set the room in order before she gave the alarm. Then, indeed, she aroused the housekeeper, telling her that Miss Wilder was extremely ill and raving mad, and that a physician should be summoned at once.

Barbara Broadsides felt herself quite equal to such an emergency, and therefore declined to wake up her old mistresses before their accustomed hour. But she aroused Mr. Jessup, and dispatched him to Abbeytown to fetch a doctor, who arrived about the dawn of day. He pronounced the illness of Annella to be a most alarming type of brain-fever, and applied the proper remedies.

This was the beginning of a long and dangerous illness, during which the delirious girl continually raved of fire and floods, perils and rescues; but as no one but Tabitha in that house knew the secret of her absence that night, her talk was all considered to be the mere wanderings of a mind excited and deranged by fever, as, perhaps, it might have been.