and
Mistress Stagg went weeping down the stairs to summon him. He came, but
would not touch the girl; only stood, with his hat in his hand, and looked
down upon her with bleared eyes and a heavy countenance.

"I am to die, am I not?" she asked, with her gaze upon him.

"That is as God wills, Audrey," he answered.

"I am not afraid to die."

"You have no need," he said, and going out of the room and down the
stairs, made Stagg pour for him a glass of aqua vitae.

Audrey closed her eyes, and when she opened them again there seemed to be
many persons in the room. One was bending over her whom at first she
thought was Molly, but soon she saw more clearly, and smiled at the pale
and sorrowful face. The lady bent lower yet, and kissed her on the
forehead. "Audrey," she said, and Audrey looking up at her answered,
"Evelyn."

When the dawn came glimmering in the windows, when the mist was cold and
the birds were faintly heard, they raised her upon her pillows, and wiped
the death dew from her forehead. "Audrey, Audrey, Audrey!" cried Haward,
and caught at her hands.

She looked at him with a faint and doubtful smile, remembering nothing of
that hour in the room below, of those minutes in the moonlit garden.
"Gather the rosebuds while ye may," she said; and then, "The house is
large. Good giant, eat me not!"

The man upon his knees beside her uttered a cry, and began to speak to
her, thickly, rapidly, words of agony, entreaty, and love. To-morrow and
for all life habit would resume its sway, and lost love, remorse, and vain
regrets put on a mask that was cold and fine and able to deceive. To-night
there spoke the awakened heart. With her hands cold in his, with his
agonized gaze upon the face from which the light was slowly passing, he
poured forth his passion and his anguish, and she listened not. They
moistened her lips, and one opened wide the window that gave upon the
east. "It was all a dream," she said; and again, "All a dream." A little
later, while the sky flushed slowly and the light of the candles grew
pale, she began suddenly, and in a stronger voice, to speak as Arpasia:--

"'If it be happiness, alas! to die,
To lie forgotten in the silent grave'"--

"Forgotten!" cried Haward. "Audrey, Audrey, Audrey! Go not from me! Oh,
love, love, stay awhile!"

"The mountains," said Audrey clearly. "The sun upon them and the lifting
mist."

"The mountains!" he cried. "Ay, we will go to them, Audrey, we wi