Conducting
him to Evelyn, I excused his presence by stating my fear that she might
require his advice after her excitement and fatigue. With skillful
caution he observed her, and in conversation elicited the statement that
some months since she had been ill from exposure. She had recovered, she
said, and was entirely well, except that occasionally slight exertion
prostrated her. Even while she spoke the monitor was continually making
itself heard.

I drew him to the other apartment, and in a hoarse whisper said,--'Well,
your verdict;--but I know it already from your countenance.'

'If you were wealthy,' he replied--

'Wealthy! I am rich--rich,' I interrupted him. 'Look!' (with this I
opened the casket, and run my fingers through the glittering contents,
like a miser through his coin.) 'Tell me what wealth can do, and these
shall do it. To gain these she has imperiled life. Let them restore it
if they can.'

I saw suspicion on his countenance. 'It is false,' I exclaimed, 'false!
I tell you she is as pure as heaven. It was for me that she earned all
these.' And I dashed them on the floor and ground them under my feet.

He seized me and was weeping. 'You are mad,' he said. 'I believe you.
Now I understand all. Do not delay. Take her to Italy, and may Heaven
preserve her to you.'

In a week's time we were on our voyage, accompanied by the children and
the physician--the latter professing to Evelyn that he desired to make
the tour of Europe. My own apology for the voyage was a wish to complete
the tour previously interrupted.

The passage was long and tedious. Before reaching our destination my
hopes of Evelyn's recovery had vanished. Her demeanor was so gentle,
childlike and affectionate, my heart was wrung with anguish. I could not
break her sweet serenity by disclosing the fate which was impending. She
seemed to have reached a period of the most holy and perfect
satisfaction. All the suppressed bitterness of former years--all the
earnest resolution of the later time--had vanished, and she rested happy
in the enjoyment of our mutual love. This quiet assisted the process of
destruction. Had there been something to rouse her old energy, I am
confident she would have made a desperate, perhaps successful, struggle
for life. But I could not force myself to excite it by a warning against
the insidious destroyer.

On our arrival she was in a deplorable condition of weakness. She
imputed this debility to the voyage. Day