s not aware that they were bad for you, Alice," he said;
"but if they are, you must keep them at a distance."

"She is really very unwell," he continued, turning to me; "she
has overtired herself completely. Ellen, you must persuade her
to give up going to that horrid hospital; she stayed there so
many hours yesterday, that it has brought on this feverish
attack. The doctor saw her this morning, and says that it
comes from nervous exhaustion. You will give it up, Alice;
won't you?"

"If you wish it," she answered, in a tone of voice which had a
note of sadness in it.

"She stayed there till twelve o'clock last night," (he
whispered to me; and there was some emotion in his voice;) "in
a little close room, with a dying woman."

"While we were at the ball," I thought to myself; and taking
Alice's hand, I kissed it with a feeling like remorse; though,
God knows, I had not wronged her, in word or in thought.

After a few minutes, during which she made a few languid
attempts at conversation, her head sunk back on the pillow of
the couch, and she fell asleep. Her hands were joined
together, and supported her cheek; the transparent paleness of
her complexion made her delicately-chiselled features appear
as if they were carved out of the purest marble, and in that
attitude of perfect repose she looked more beautiful than I
had ever yet seen her.

Henry and I sat silently for some time, by the side of her
couch. When her regular breathing and her divided lips showed
that she had fallen into a deep slumber, he got up and partly
closed the shutters; then opening the door of the back
sitting-room, he beckoned to me to follow him. I did so; but,
putting on my bonnet and shawl at the same time, I prepared to
go away immediately.

On which he said to me in a low voice, "Now, Ellen, for once I
can speak to you alone, and without interruption, and you must
listen to me."

I answered in the same tone, but with the most determined
accent, "This tyranny is intolerable, and I cannot submit to
it; if, as you have often hinted to me, you have the power and
the will to make me miserable,--to destroy the small remnant
of happiness which I can ever enjoy,--do so! I am at your
mercy."

"At _my_ mercy!" he exclaimed, "at _my_ mercy! Ellen, the time
is come when everything must be revealed to you, when there
must be no secrets between us; and all I implore is, that you
will hear me. It is of the utmost importance to you, even more
t