They stood and looked at each other in silence for a moment; but what a
silence!

It almost seemed to Nell as if it were not he himself who stood before
her, but just a vision of her imagination, called up by the intensity of
her thoughts of him. The color came and went in her face, leaving it, at
last, pale and startled. And he, too, stood, as incapable of speech as
any of the shy and bashful young fishermen on the quay; he, the man of
the world, who had faced so many "situations" with women--women of the
world armed with the weapons of experience, and the "higher culture." At
that moment, intense as it was, the strength of the emotion which swept
over him and mastered him, amazed him.

He knew, now that he was face to face with her, how he had missed this
girl, how keen and intolerable had been his longing for her.

He remembered to hold out his hand. Had he done so yet? For the life of
him, he could not have told. The sight of the sweet face had cast a
spell over him, and he did not know whether he was standing or sitting.

As she put her small hand in his, Nell recovered something of her
self-possession; but not all, for her heart was beating furiously, her
bosom heaving, and she was in agony lest he should see the mist of dew
which seemed to cover her eyes.