f sleep produces. The shutters
and curtains were closed, the candles were lit on the
dressing-room table, and my maid was sitting on a chair near
the fire. I called her and asked in a drowsy voice what
o'clock it was.

"It is near nine o'clock, Ma'am."

"Why is it so dark? Why are the shutters shut? Have I been
ill?"

"You have been sleeping a long time. Ma'am. The doctor thinks
you must have taken a little too much laudanum."

"Laudanum! How? When?"

Gradually the recollection of the scene of the preceding
evening returned to me, and of the sedative I had so rashly
taken. I held my head with my hands, and asked where Edward
was?

"Mr. Middleton desired to be told when you should awake,
Ma'am; and he wishes the doctor to see you too."

She went out of the room, and I felt as if some new form of
misery was hanging over me. Why had Edward desired to be
informed of my waking instead of watching over me himself? If
my long sleep had been alarming, ought I not to have awoke in
his arms? I now remembered all that had occurred during the
last two days, and I felt as if a crisis was approaching. The
door opened, but instead of Edward, Dr. Harris came in; and
after hoping I felt pretty well, and feeling my pulse, he
asked me some questions about the quantity of laudanum I had
taken. I named a certain number of drops at a guess, for I had
hardly measured the quantity. He left me, and a moment
afterwards I heard him speaking with Edward in the
dressing-room. I sprang out of bed, glided to the door, and
listened.

"Indeed I can assure you," I heard him say, "that you need be
under no alarm about Mrs. Middleton's health. The quantity of
sedative she has taken can produce only temporary
inconvenience if she keeps quiet. It cannot affect her
materially. I would not tell you so if I did not feel
convinced of it. Indeed, the very fact of being under its
influence will make the intelligence you have to communicate
less likely to affect her in an alarming manner than at any
other time."

"Then I shall go to her at once."

I hurried back into bed; my teeth chattering with cold, and my
heart throbbing to suffocation. An instant after I heard his
step, and he walked up to the bed. His face was as pale as
death, and he wore his travelling fur coat. I uttered a faint
scream, and clasped my hands.

"Do not agitate yourself, Ellen."

I burst into tears; for although he had not said one word of
kindness, he had called me El