but she looks so delicate that I do not like to send her
up these long stairs oftener than is necessary. Haven't you noticed
how pale she is getting of late? I shouldn't be at all surprised--"
but before the sentence was finished the linen was found, and the door
closed upon Mrs. Carter.

A new idea had been awakened in Margaret's mind, and for the first
time she thought how much her sister really had changed. Carrie, who
was four years younger than Margaret, had ever been delicate, and her
parents had always feared that not long could they keep her; but
though each winter her cough had returned with increased severity,
though the veins on her white brow grew more distinct, and her large,
blue eyes glowed with unwonted luster, still Margaret had never before
dreamed of danger, never thought that soon her sister's voice would be
missed, and that Carrie would be gone. But she thought of it now, and
laying her head upon the table wept for a time in silence.

At length, drying her tears, she folded her letter and took it to the
post-office. As she was returning home she was met by a servant, who
exclaimed, "Run, Miss Margaret, run; your mother is dying, and Mrs.
Carter sent me for you!"

Swift as the mountain chamois, Margaret sped up the long, steep hill,
and in a few moments stood within her mother's sick-room. Supported in
the arms of Mrs. Carter lay the dying woman, while her eyes, already
overshadowed with the mists of coming death, wandered anxiously around
the room, as if in quest of some one. The moment Margaret appeared, a
satisfied smile broke over her wasted features, and beckoning her
daughter to her bedside, she whispered, "Dear Maggie, you did not
think I'd die so soon, when you went away."

A burst of tears was Maggie's only answer, as she passionately kissed
the cold, white lips, which had never breathed aught to her save words
of love and gentleness. Far different, however, would have been her
reply had she known the reason of her mother's question. Not long
after she had left the house for the office, Mrs. Hamilton had been
taken worse, and the physician, who chanced to be present, pronounced
her dying. Instantly the alarmed husband summoned together his
household, but Mag was missing. No one had seen her; no one knew where
she was, until Mrs. Carter, who had been some little time absent from
the room reentered it, saying "Margaret had started for the
post-office with a letter when I sent a servant to