THE TEXAN HUNTRESS. 833 
with an affectionate familiarity, and seemed to think of 
resuming his labors where he left them off. Her eyes brimmed 
and glistened as she watched him, and when he took up his 
magnifying glass she leaned forward, suddenly, and asked, 
with an eager and hopeful expression :— 
“William, is the light good?” 
He nodded his head pleasantly, but spoke no word; she 
turned pale at this, and said, in an agonized ¢voice, while with 
blue and parted lips she hung upon his answer :— 
“William, why do you not speak ?” 
He made an inarticulate movement of the lips, raised his 
finger to them, and shook his head sadly. She clasped her 
hands and staggered backwards, but I caught her. For one 
minute she was motionless, except a slow shivering of the 
body; and with rigid features and lips compressed, leaned 
against me, with such an expression of hopeless abandon, that 
I could not help the tears springing to my eyes. She soon 
recovered her self-possession, and raising herself erect, she 
coldly remarked :— 
“He can at least talk for humanity in deeds; his eyes have 
language enough for us to converse.” 
From this time she seemed to me as one stricken; she 
moved about in tearless silence,—never speaking to me, 
except when compelled, and then only in monosyllables. 
. She never attempted to speak to him again, except by looks 
or signs, of which they had in a few days established a simple 
but sufficiently significant system. I never heard this woman 
complain once of her wound, though it was clearly a severe 
one, and she must have suffered greatly. She went calmly 
on as usual, watching every want of her husband, and even 
anticipating many. He had recovered sufficiently now to be 
able to resume his labor, and she kept near him all the time, 
seeming to understand perfectly the effect of every new 
combination attempted, and the purpose which was to be 
attained. 
