se do," cried Jean eagerly; and the other girls echoed it.

"If I ever! God bless my soul! I never did!" exclaimed Mr. Congreve,
falling back into his chair, perfectly overcome. "You will let me come
and stay till next summer, then you and Jean and Ernestine go home with
me, as you promised?"

"Yes," said Mrs. Dering.

"Well, well, I might have known that the good Lord would fix it some
way. That's just the thing. I'll do it, Elizabeth; I will. Where's my
snuff-box and satchel! It's pretty near train time."

Jean ran to get them, while Mr. Congreve went up stairs to say good-bye
to Ernestine; and when he went off at last, it was in the gayest
possible spirits, with promises to be back as soon as Roger started
abroad; and so all the sadness was taken from the parting.

They thought he would be back in, at least, a month, but the time
lengthened itself into three and four, and yet he did not come. Roger
was sick, to begin with, and did not gain strength very rapidly, and
nothing could have made the old man leave him.

"But I can stand it very well," he wrote. "I know that it's not going to
last, so I can keep up plenty of spirits, with thinking of the time when
I will come. The boy is getting better fast, and as soon as he settles
up a little business, he is off, and then I will shut up and be off
likewise, in a hurry."

But they at home, found hands and hearts busy with new work that was
sadly brief and bitter. As the warm weather came, Ernestine began to
fail rapidly. She suffered no new pain, and uttered no complaint, but as
the days went by, and the intense heat of summer burned all purity and
life from the air, she just seemed to droop, and bow her head feebly
beneath the oppressive heat; and the frail stem of life snapped, with
the weight of its own slight self. They had hoped against hope, that the
sad end could be fought off, and with the first coming of warm days,
Mrs. Dering had proposed going to the sea-side with her; but Dr.
Barnett, who had fought eagerly and desperately with the dread disease,
told them that it would do no good. The excitement might only hasten the
end, and better to leave her quiet, and so contentedly happy as she
seemed, than to bring new faces and new scenes to worry and distract the
last feeble remnant of her strength. So they submitted themselves to his
word, as one of authority, and took upon themselves the sad duty of
watching a loved life drift peacefully out, and trying to sa