nset.

When Mrs. Dubois went to arouse him from what seemed an unusually long
slumber, she found a volume of Fenelon spread open upon his knee, and
turning it, her eye ran over passages full of lofty and devout
aspiration. These, probably expressed the latest thoughts and desires
of the good chevalier, for as she looked from the pages to his face,
turned upward toward the ceiling, a smile of assent and satisfaction
was still lingering there, although his breath had departed and his
pulse was still.

Mrs. Dubois stooped to kiss the forehead of her uncle, but started
back with a sudden thrill of fear. She gazed searchingly at him for a
moment, and then she knew that Death, the conqueror, stood there with
her, looking upon his completed work.

After the first shock of surprise was over, she remained gazing upon
the spectacle in perfect silence. A truly devout Catholic, in her
grief she leaned with all a woman's trust and confidingness upon the
love and power of Christ, and something of the divine calmness which
we associate with the character of the mother of our Lord, and which
has been so wonderfully depicted to the eye by some of the older
painters, pervaded her spirit.

As she thus stood, spellbound, entranced, her eyes fixed upon the
noble features irradiated with a smile of content and peace, the long
silvery locks parted away from the forehead and flowing around the
head, like a halo, she thought it the countenance of a saint, and her
poetic fancy created at once a vision of the Saviour, with an aspect
grand, glorious, yet gracious and benign, placing with His right hand
a golden jewelled crown upon her uncle's head. A cloud swept up over
the gorgeous earthliness of the great Rubens picture, and from out its
folds shone sweet and smiling angel faces, looking down upon the
scene.

Mrs. Dubois never knew how long she remained thus absorbed. She was
first aroused by hearing a voice saying, in tones of fervor, "How
blessed it is to die!" And Adele, who had entered the room a little
time before, and had uttered these words, stepped forward and
imprinted a kiss upon the pale uplifted brow of the sleeper.

CHAPTER XXVI.

POMPEII.

About this period, Mrs. Lansdowne, whose health had been declining for
nearly a year, was urgently advised by her physician to seek a milder
climate. John immediately offered himself as her _compagnon de
voyage_, and manifested great alacrity in the preparations for their
depa