plated picture, for a long rest will
soon overtake you."

A gleam that was nearer akin to joy than any expression he had yet
seen, passed from eye to lip, and she answered, almost eagerly,--

"If that be true, it offers a premium for the continuance of habits
you condemn so strenuously; but I dare not hope it, and I beg of you
not to tantalize me with vain expectations of a release that may yet
be far, far distant."

Dr. Grey's heart stirred with earnest sympathy for this lonely
hopeless soul, who, standing almost upon the threshold of life,
stretched her arms so yearningly to woo the advance of death.

The room was slowly filling with shadows, and, leaning there against
her easel, she looked as unearthly as the pearly forms that summer
clouds sometimes assume, when a harvest-moon springs up from sea foam
and fog, and stares at them. When she spoke again, her voice was chill
and crisp.

"My malady is beyond your reach, and baffles human skill. You mean
only kindness, and I suppose I ought to thank you, but alas! the
sentiment of gratitude is such a stranger in my heart, that it has yet
to learn an adequate language. Dr. Grey, the only help you can
possibly render me is to prolong Elsie's life. As for me, and my
uncertain future, give yourself no charitable solicitude. Do you
recollect what Lessing wrote to Claudius? 'I am too proud to own that
I am unhappy. I shut my teeth, and let the bark drift. Enough that I
do not turn it over with my own hands.' Elsie is signalling for me. Do
you hear that bell? Good-night, Dr. Grey."

CHAPTER XVIII.

"I have had a long conversation with Ulpian, and find him violently
opposed to the scheme you mentioned to me several days since. He
declares he will gladly share his last dollar with you sooner than see
you embark in a career so fraught with difficulties, trials, and--"

Miss Jane paused to find an appropriate word, and Salome very promptly
supplied her.

"Temptations. That is exactly what you both mean. Go on."

"Well, yes, dear. I am afraid the profession you have selected is
beset with dangerous allurements for one so inexperienced and
unsophisticated as yourself."

"Bah! Speak out. I am sick of circumlocution. What do you understand
by unsophisticated?"

"Why, I mean,--well, what can I mean but just what the word
expresses,--unsophisticated? That is, young, thoughtless, ignorant of
the ways of the world, and the excessive cunning and deceit of human
natur