ry
delirium.

"Get more candles! how very dark it is!" he said. "Who are all those
people? Send away everybody but grandmama! I must speak to her alone.
Never tell papa of all this, it would only distress him--say nothing
about me. Why do Harry and Laura never come? They have been absent more
than a week! Who took away uncle David too?"

Laura listened for some time in an agony of grief, till at last, unable
any longer to restrain her feelings, she clasped Frank in her arms and
burst into tears, exclaiming, in accents of piercing distress, "Oh
Frank! dear Frank! have you forgotten poor Laura?"

"Not till I am dead!" whispered he, while a momentary gleam of
recollection lighted up his face. "Laura! we meet again."

Sir Edward now wished to speak, but Frank had relapsed into a state of
feeble unconsciousness, from which nothing could arouse him; once or
twice he repeated the name of Laura in a low melancholy voice, till it
became totally inaudible--his breath became shorter--his lips became
livid--his whole frame seemed convulsed--and some hours afterwards, all
that was mortal of Frank Graham ceased to exist. About four in the
morning his body was at rest, and his spirit returned to God who gave
it.

The candles had burned low in their sockets, and still the mourners
remained, unwilling to move from the awful scene of their bereavement.
Mrs. Crabtree at length, who laid out the body herself, extinguished the
lights, and flung open the window curtains. Then suddenly a bright blaze
of sunshine streamed into the room, and rested on the cold pale face of
the dead. To the stunned and bewildered senses of Harry and Laura, the
brilliant dawn of morning seemed like a mockery of their distress. Many
persons were already passing by--the busy stir of life had begun, and a
boy strolling along the road whistled his merry tune as he went gaily
on.

"We are indeed mere atoms in the world!" thought Laura bitterly, while
these sights and sounds fell heavily on her heart. "If Harry and I had
both been dead also, the sun would have shone as brightly, the birds
sung as joyfully, and those people been all as gay and happy as ever!
Nobody is thinking of Frank--nobody knows our misery--the world is going
on as if nothing had happened, and we are breaking our hearts with
grief!"

Laura's heart became stilled as she gazed on the peaceful and almost
happy expression of those beautiful features, which had now lost all
appearance of suffer