She gazed upon it with a kind of silent rapture, while a
faint smile rested upon her pallid lips.
"We are indeed safe, if you have found food,"--and she tasted the fig.
"Eat it all, dear; here are plenty more, and melons, too."
"Let me see you eat, Francois; it will do me more good than to eat
myself. You have labored hard. Can we get out of this place? Are not
these Mr. Dumont's friends? Have they come to fill up the pit you have
dug?"
"No, dearest, they are _our_ friends," said Dalhousie, pained by the
wandering, wild state of her mind, and fearful that it might end in
insanity. "We will leave this place as soon as you have eaten some of
these figs and melons. I am almost restored by the joy of this moment,
dearest; and you must strive to be of good cheer."
Dalhousie and his wife ate freely of the fruit, while Uncle Nathan and
Pat gazed in silence upon the scene. But Delia was not so easily
restored. Her mental and physical sufferings appeared to have given her
constitution a shock from which it would take time to recover.
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