he room, and finally
closed again.

"I told you she would not know you," sighed the doctor.

"So best, so best, perhaps. Heaven grant that she may know nothing until
her eyes shall open in that bright and blessed land, where

'The wicked cease from troubling,
And the weary are at rest!'"

said Lyon Berners, bowing his head.

But he remained standing by the bedside, and gazing at the pale, still
face of his wife, until at length Miss Tabby came up to him, with the
babe in her arms, and whimpered forth:

"Oh, Mr. Lyon, won't you look at your little daughter just once? Won't
you say something to her? Won't you give her your blessing? Nobody has
said a word to her yet; nobody has welcomed her; nobody has blessed her!
Oh! my good Lord in heaven! to be born in prison, and not to get one
word of welcome from anybody, even from her own father!"

And here Miss Tabby, overcome by her feelings, sobbed aloud; for which
weakness I for one don't blame her.

"Give me the child," said Mr. Berners, taking the babe from the yielding
arms of the nurse. "Poor little unfortunate!" he continued, as he
uncovered and gazed on her face. "May the Lord bless you, for I, wretch
that I am, have no power to bless."

At this moment Mrs. Winterose came up, and addressing the doctor, said:

"Sir, I have done all I can do in this extremity. Tabby is fully equal
to anything that may happen now. But as for me, sir, I _must_ leave."

"Leave? What are you thinking of, woman?" demanded the doctor, almost
angrily.

"Sir, I left my poor old husband at the very point of death! I would not
have left him, for any other cause on earth but this. And now I must go
back to him, or he may be dead before I get there."

"Good Heaven, my dear woman, but this is dreadful!"

"I know it is, sir. But I couldn't help it. My child here ill and in
prison, and I called to help her in her extremity, and my husband on his
death-bed. Well, sir, I couldn't help my poor old man much, because he
was so low he didn't know one face from another, and I could help my
poor imprisoned, suffering child; and so I left my dying husband to the
care of my darter Libby, and I comes to my suffering child! But now
she's over the worst of it, I must leave her in the care of Tabby, and
go back to my dying husband. Please God I may find him alive!" said the
poor woman, fervently clasping her hands.

"My good soul, here is indeed a most painful case of a divided duty,"
said t