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"Which I never will, sir, from this day"

"Never will, says the vision? But I aloke and found it an

empty mockery; and I was desolate and abandoned--my life dark,

lonely, hopeless--my soul athirst and forbidden to drink--my heart

fa in my

arms now, you will fly, too, as your sisters have all fled before

you: but kiss o--embrace me, Jane"

"There, sir--and there!"' I pressed my lips to his once brilliant and now rayless eyes--I

swept his hair from his brow, and kissed that too He suddenly

seemed to arouse himself: the conviction of the reality of all this

seized him

"It is you--is it, Jane? You are come back to me then?"

"I am"

"And you do not lie dead in so outcast aers?"

"No, sir! I am an independent woman now"

"Independent! What do you mean, Jane?"

"My uncle in Madeira is dead, and he left me five thousand pounds"

"Ah! this is practical--this is real!" he cried: "I should never

dream that Besides, there is that peculiar voice of hers, so

ani and piquant, as well as soft: it cheers my withered

heart; it puts life into it--What, Janet! Are you an independent

woman? A rich woman?"

"If you won't let me live with you, I can build a house of my own