and
of all the family but Mrs Rowland, she should wait till she could
obtain admittance.

How rejoiced was she, at this moment, to hear the house door open, to
hear the step she knew so well, to see Philip, and to have her arm drawn
within his!

"Let us pass," said he to his sister, who stopped the way.

"Rest a moment," said Margaret. "Recover your breath a little, or we
shall flurry her."

"She is flurried to death already," said Philip, in his deepest tone of
emotion. "Priscilla, our mother is dying; it is my belief that she is
dying. If you have any humanity,--if you have any regard for your own
future peace of mind, conduct yourself decently now. Govern your own
family as you will, when you have lost your mother; but hold off your
hand from her last hours."

"Your own last hours are to come," said Margaret. "As you would have
Matilda be to you then, be you to your mother now."

"I must ascertain one thing, Philip," said Mrs Rowland. "Does my
mother know of what you call your engagement to Miss Ibbotson?"

"She does not; and the sole reason is, that I would not subject her to
what you might say and do. I wished, for her own sake, to keep the
whole affair out of her thoughts, when once I had removed the false
impressions you had given her. But Margaret and I may see fit to tell
her now. I may see fit to give her the comfort of a daughter who will
be to her what you ought to have been."

He gently drew his sister aside, to make way for Margaret to pass.

"In my own house!" exclaimed Mrs Rowland, in a tone of subdued rage.

"We should have been in the house over the way," replied her brother;
"and we act as if we were there. Come, my Margaret, we are doing
right."

"We are," replied Margaret; but yet she trembled.

"I must go in first, and tell her that I have brought you," said Philip.
"And yet I do not like to leave you, even for a moment."

"Oh, never mind! I am not to be shaken now."

Mrs Rowland did not appear during the two long minutes that Margaret
was left by herself in the dressing-room. When Philip came for her, he
said:

"You must not leave her again. You will stay, will not you? You shall
be protected: but you must stay. I shall tell her how we stand to each
other,--we will tell her,--carefully, for she cannot bear much
emotion.--You are tired,--you must be tired," he continued, looking at
her with anxiety: "but--"

"Do not speak of it. I did sleep last night, and there