sick room were not yet
over. Eveline kept sleeping and waking, or rather, she lay in a state of
stupor or raved in a delirium of fever, with occasional intervals of quiet,
which sometimes lasted for hours, and excited delusive hopes in the heart
of the father, that she was better, only to plunge him again into doubt and
fear when the fever fit returned. He arose from his knees, and bending over
his child, imprinted kiss after kiss, "with all a mother's tenderness,"
upon her brow and lips. O, how rejoiced would he have been could those
kisses have conveyed to her an understanding of his feelings at that
moment! How a knowledge of his affection would have gladdened her heart!
But, no; for all the return manifested, he might as well have pressed his
lips to cold marble. After a time, the fever returned in violence, and she
resumed her distempered and broken discourse:

"Never! never! I will stay with you, if you wish me to; but marry Duffel, I
never will! Force me to? No, father, you cannot! You may drive me from your
house; you may turn me off and disown me, but you cannot make me perjure
myself before God at the altar. No, father, I will obey you in all else; in
this I cannot, and will not. If I were to go and forswear my soul in the
solemn rites of marriage, my adored mother would weep over me in sorrow, if
angels _can_ weep in heaven. No, never, never!"

"My child, my dear Eveline," said the father, tenderly endeavoring to quiet
her, "you need not fear that your father will be so cruel"--and he laid his
hand gently upon her, to assure her of his presence; but it had a contrary
effect from that he intended; she seemed to apprehend violence, and cried
out:

"Help! help! They are dragging me away to marry a villain! Will no one help
me? Where is Charles? Leave me! help!" She began to scream very loudly, and
Mr. Mandeville knew not what to do. The doctor, however, opportunely came
at this moment, and administered a soothing potion, and she became quiet.

This was the recurring succession of events in the sick chamber for the
first ten days of Eveline's illness; then there was a change; the violent
symptoms of disease were reduced, and a state of dreamy languor succeeded,
with rare intervals of excitement, and those of the mildest type; but
consciousness did not return, and the father had the satisfaction of
knowing that the secrets of the place were his own. He had now but little
fear that others would learn them, but t