m to the county gaol.

CHAPTER XIII

Tears are not always fruitful; their hot drops
Sometimes but scorch the cheek and dim the eye;
Despairing murmurs over blackened hopes,
Not the meek spirit's calm and chastened cry.
Oh, better not to weep, than weep amiss!
For hard it is to learn to weep aright;
To weep wise tears, the tears that heal and bless,
The tears which their own bitterness requite.--H. BONAR

To one of the most tender-hearted of human beings had the office of
conveying ill tidings been most often committed, and again Dr. May
found himself compelled to precede Henry Ward into the sister's
presence, and to break to her the result of the inquest.

He was no believer in the efficacy of broken news, but he could not
refuse when Henry in his wretchedness entreated not to be the first in
the infliction of such agony; so he left the carriage outside, and
walked up to the door; and there stood Averil, with Ethel a few steps
behind her. His presence was enough revelation. Had things gone well,
he would not have been the forerunner; and Averil, meaning perhaps to
speak, gave a hoarse hysterical shriek, so frightful as to drive away
other anxieties, and summon Henry in from his watch outside.

All day the poor girl had kept up an unnatural strain on her powers,
vehemently talking of other things, and, with burning cheeks and
shining eyes, moving incessantly from one employment to another; now
her needle, now her pencil--roaming round the garden gathering flowers,
or playing rattling polkas that half stunned Ethel in her intense
listening for tidings. Ethel, who had relieved guard and sent Mary
home in the afternoon, had vainly striven to make Ave rest or take
food; the attempt had brought on such choking, that she could only
desist, and wait for the crisis. The attack was worse than any
ordinary hysterics, almost amounting to convulsions; and all that could
be done was to prevent her from hurting herself, and try to believe Dr.
May's assurance that there was no real cause for alarm, and that the
paroxysms would exhaust themselves.

In time they were spent, and Ave lay on her bed half torpid, feebly
moaning, but with an instinctive dread of being disturbed. Henry
anxiously watched over her, and Dr. May thought it best to leave the
brother and sister to one another. Absolute quiet was best for her,
and he had skill and tenderness enough to deal with her, and was
evidently som