n a chair, in which she had sat down for a few moments' rest.

Was it only a vision? she wondered, or did she hear some one call her
name softly: "Dorothy! Dorothy!"

She turned her head quickly, but she could see no one, although some one
was whispering:

"Why do you nurse Jessie so carefully? If it is destined that she should
die, I wonder that you grieve when you know that her death will bring
freedom to Jack Garner and love to you!"

The idea was so startling that for a time it nearly took her breath
away.

"Let her drift quietly on to the end which is near. If you do not work
too zealously to save her, your reward will be the heart of him whom you
_love at last_. Take warning, and heed my words!"

Dorothy sprang from her chair, quivering with excitement.

She had been fast asleep, and the words that still rang in her ears
shocked her yet, even though she knew it was but a dream--though such a
vivid one--and the voice that whispered those words to her seemed so
like Jack's.

Still the idea was in her head. If Jessie Staples died, her lover would
be free again, and she knew what that would mean for herself.

She tried to put the thought from her, but she could not; it haunted her
continually.

She tried to tell herself that even if Jessie were to die, she would
never make herself known to Jack.

But, even after she had said all that, she knew in her own mind that she
would be sure to let Jack know at last, for she would never realize a
moment's happiness until she was once more what she had been to Jack in
the past.

It had been such a slight affair that had parted them, and that had
drifted two hearts asunder.

Alas! how light a cause may move
Dissensions between hearts that love--
Hearts that the world in vain had tried,
And sorrow but more closely tied;
That stood the storm when waves were rough,
Yet in a sunny hour fell off,
Like ships that have gone down at sea
When heaven was all tranquillity."

CHAPTER XXXIV.

During the week that followed, the words that Dorothy had heard in her
dream constantly recurred to her.

At first she fought against the feeling that seemed to be forced upon
her.

She cried out to herself that Jessie must live; but with that thought
always came the one that, if Jessie recovered, it would mean the
downfall of all her own future happiness.

At last her growing love for Jack Garner conquered her. She yielded to
it. It was