k room. Poor thing! she is nearly gone, and still so lively;
and, too, this morning when I went in, I know she had been weeping."

"Did she ever mention me?" said Ella.

"Last night she said if you would come, that she could die contented."

"Then lead me to her quickly."

They silently bent their steps to the sick chamber, and coming to the
door, both made an involuntary pause.

"She is sleeping," said the old lady, softly; but Ella was too much
struck to make reply. She was thinking of the dreadful changes which
had come over that frail being since last they met. Worn down to a
skeleton, her lips compressed, as if in agony, her dark hair thrown
back upon her shoulders, while her cheeks were pale as the marble so
soon to be raised in her memory, which, with the glimmering of the
lights, served to make it a too dismal scene. Staggering forward to a
chair, she sat down quickly, but in the agitation there was a slight
noise--it awakened the sleeper; a moment passed--they were in each
others arms. When the first wild burst of joy had passed away, Mary
spoke.

"Sit down here, Ella--I want to be alone with you; I feared that I
might die before you came;" a convulsive shuddering passing over her,
as she spoke of death. "I want to give you my history. 'T is? a dark
picture, and yet it has all been mine."

"But are you not too weak and agitated?" asked the warm-hearted
friend.

"Oh, no! that sweet, quiet sleep has so refreshed me, that I feel
almost like another being--and I shall be very brief. But to my story.
You recollect my having often told you that I never set my heart on an
earthly object but I was doomed to bear a bitter disappointment. That
wary, stubborn rock, encircled by the whirl of youthful and
enthusiastic feeling, which, in life's earlier years, drew within its
circled waves my frail bark of love and hope, then cast it forth--a
wreck forever.

"In the village in which I was raised, lived one who shared with me
the sports of childhood; and as we grew older, partook of the
recreations and amusements of the young together. There was a strange
similarity in our tastes and dispositions; and we consequently spent
much of our time in each others society. There were those who
sometimes smiled to see a young and sunny-haired youth so constantly
with the sensitive, shrinking Mary Warner; but then they knew we were
playmates from childhood, and thought no more. Mother was dead, and I
was under the guidance of