kill you."

"Kill me? How can it affect me, silly child? What nonsense."

Della lifted up the beautiful head which was bowed before her, and
turned the pallid face toward her own.

"Tell me, you foolish one," she persisted, her curiosity fully aroused.
"I must and will know about it now;" and she stamped her little foot
with an air of command, which, toward her favorite, was very rarely
assumed.

Minny pressed her hands, clasped one upon the other, hard against her
heart, as if its throbbing was painful, and raised her eyes, full of a
strange, wild light, to her mistress's face.

"I would sooner die than tell you, Miss."

There might have been something in that agonized look that called forth
emotion, or there might have been something in that cold, fixed gaze,
which stamped for the instant the father on that upturned, ashy face;
for as she met the glance, Della suddenly clasped her hands to her face,
and, with an exclamation of horror, fell back fainting.

Minny sprang wildly to her feet--"Oh, Miss Della!" she exclaimed, as
she bent over the senseless form before her, pouring out her passionate
accents as if there was an ear to hear them. "Oh, Miss Della, how could
you crave this knowledge to-day, of all other days? Had it been
yesterday morning, or ever before in all our life here together, I would
not have known, and you would have never known. To-day, of all days! Oh,
I have broken this poor, sensitive heart; woe is me, woe is me! Oh, if I
had only died before I learned this dreadful secret, only died! only
died!"

With trembling hands, and eyes raining down their gushing tears, Minny
bathed the pale brow, and brought rare perfumes, and chafed the little
hands.

"Miss Della! Miss Della! I knew it would kill you--and you only guessed;
I never told you--oh, no, never, never, never!"

Slowly Della returned to consciousness, and as her eyes unclosed, they
fell upon the agonized face of her weeping attendant. She closed them
quickly, and raised her hand so as to wave her from her sight, but it
dropped listlessly back into her lap, and she lay still in the large
chair, apparently as weak and helpless as an infant.

"Oh, Miss Della! God forgive me for what I have done, though I never
meant to do it--never thought to do it. What could have turned your
thoughts on this to-day?"

"Go away," murmured Della, faintly; "go away, so that I may open my eyes
and not see you."

Minny moved a few paces back.

"I can