y must wait patiently the issue of events.

Wait patiently? Twice more that day he walked up to the overseer's
cottage to find out whether Miss Tabby's fever had gone off and she had
come to her senses, and he came back disappointed. And again, very late
at night, he walked up there and startled the watcher by the sick-bed
with the same question so often repeated:

"Has she come to her senses yet?"

"No; she is more stupider than ever, I think," was Miss Libby's answer.

"What does your mother think is the matter with her, then?"

"Oh, nothing but chills and fevers. Only Tabby has a weak head, and
always loses of it when she has a fever."

"Well, Miss Libby, as soon as she comes to herself, if it is in the dead
of night, send some one over to the Hall to let me know, that I may come
immediately; for my anxiety to ascertain my wife's fate, which she only
can tell, is really insupportable."

Miss Libby promised to obey his directions, and Lyon Berners returned to
Black Hall.

But not that night, nor for many nights after that, did Miss Tabby come
to her senses. Her illness proved to be a low type of typhoid fever, not
primarily caused, but only hastened by the depressing influences of fear
and cold from her exposure to death, and to the elements, on the night
of the great flood.

For many weary weeks she lay on her bed, too low to answer or even
understand a question.

And during all this time nothing occurred to throw the faintest gleam of
light upon the deep darkness that still enveloped the fate of Sybil
Berners.

This period of almost insupportable anxiety was passed by Mr. Berners in
doing all that was possible to repair the damage done by the disastrous
flood.

He was the largest subscriber to, and also the treasurer of the fund
raised for the relief of the victims, and passed much time in receiving
and disbursing money on their account.

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE VICTIMS.

And each will mourn his own, (she saith,)
But sweeter woman ne'er drew breath
Than that young wife.--JEAN INGLELOW.

The Great Black Valley Flood, as it came to be called, had occurred on
Hallow Eve.

Before Christmas Eve many of its ravages had been repaired.

The laborers' cottages had been rebuilt and refurnished. Other dwellings
were in process of reconstruction; and the works were only temporarily
suspended by the frost. The public buildings were contracted for, to be
re-erected in the spring.

All th