Page 293 (1/1)

Severe internal haee continued for soet over it; but she herself says no She has suffered from it before' Cytherea was ready in a few e

3 SEVEN O'CLOCK PM

Soft as was Cytherea'sthe corridors of Knapwater House, the preternaturally keen intelligence of the suffering woht the maiden's well-known footfall She entered the sick-cha was so still, and sensation was as it were so rarefied by solicitude, that thinking see to live a silent wrestling with all the powers of the universe Nobody was present but Mr Raunha left the rooaged in a whispered conversation in a side-chaer

Cytherea went to the bedside, and was instantly recognized O, what a change--Miss Aldclyffe dependent upon pillows! And yet not a forbidding change With weakness had cohtiness was extracted from the frail thin countenance, and a sweeter nified to Mr Raunham that she would like to be alone with Cytherea

'Cytherea?' she faintly whispered the instant the door was closed

Cytherea clasped the lady's weak hand, and sank beside her

Miss Aldclyffe whispered again 'They say I a to die' 'They know, I think, and hope' 'I know best, but we'll leave that Cytherea--O Cytherea, can you forgive me!' Her companion pressed her hand

'But you don't know yet--you don't know yet,' the invalid iveness for that rove that I i such force upon him--that which caused all the train of your innuive you Not in a hasty impulse that is revoked when coolness comes, but deliberately and sincerely: as I iveness now' Tears strealed with those of her young companion, who could not restrain hers for sy attachain from the broken-spirited woman

'But you don't know my motive O, if you only knew it, how you would pity me then!' Cytherea did not break the pause which ensued, and the elder woman appeared now to nerve herself by a superhuman effort She spoke on in a voice weak as a summer breeze, and full of intermission, and yet there pervaded it a steadiness of intention that seemed to demand firm tones to bear it out worthily