r was almost as silent as the
room in which Daisy lay dead, with a strange beauty in her face, to
which had returned, as it sometimes does, all the freshness and
loveliness of youth, so that she looked like some fair young girl as she
lay upon her pillow, with her hands upon her bosom, just as she had
folded them, when at the last she said to those around her:

"It is growing late. I think I will retire; good-night;" then, clasping
her hands together, she began the prayer of her childhood: "Now I lay me
down to sleep," repeating the whole distinctly, while, with the words,
"I pray thee, Lord, my soul to take," she went to meet the God who is so
pitiful and kind, and who knew all the good that was in her, and knew,
too, what thoughts of remorse for the past and prayers for forgiveness
had been in her heart during the few lucid intervals which had been
given to her. She had been delirious most of the time, and in her
delirium had talked of things which made poor Bessie shudder, they
revealed to her so much more of her mother's past than she had ever
known.

Monte Carlo was the field to which her fancy oftenest took flight, and
there, at the gaming-table she sat again, going through the excitement
of the olden time, losing and winning--winning and losing--sometimes
with Teddy at her side, and sometimes with men of a baser, lower type,
with whom she bandied jests, until the scene was too horrible even for
the iron-nerved Flossie to endure. Then, there were moments of perfect
consciousness, when she knew and spoke rationally to those about her,
and tried to comfort Bessie, who insisted upon having a lounge taken
into the room so that she might see her mother, if she could not
minister to her.

Once, startled by the expression of the faces around her, Daisy said:

"Why do you all look so sorry? Am I very sick? Am I going to die? Oh,
_am_ I going to die? I cannot die. I cannot! Don't let me die! Don't;
don't."

It was like the cry of a frightened child begging a reprieve from
punishment, and that piteous "Don't! don't!" rang in Bessie's ears long
after the lips which uttered the words were silent in death.

During their journeyings together, Daisy had shown the best there was in
her and had really seemed trying to reform. When, on her return from
America, she had suggested that they go abroad, saying she would sell
her diamonds to defray the expenses, Bessie had refused at first, and
had only consented on condition that