lected that she had, for his sake, assumed these
all-engrossing cares. Singularly enough, however, it was since her
assumption of the chief duties of nursing him that the Earl had
relapsed. The doctor felt that nothing better in the way of nursing
him could be conceived of. Zillah thought that if it had not been for
Hilda the Earl would scarcely have been alive. As for Hilda herself,
she could only meekly deprecate the doctor's praises, and sigh to
think that such care as hers should prove so unavailing.

The Earl's case was, indeed, a mysterious one. After making every
allowance for the shock which he might have experienced, and after
laying all possible stress upon that blow on his head which he had
suffered when falling forward, it still was a subject of wonder to
the doctor why he should not recover. Hilda had told him in general
terms, and with her usual delicacy, of the cause of the Earl's
illness, so that the doctor knew that it arose from mental trouble,
and not from physical ailment. Yet, even under these circumstances,
he was puzzled at the complete prostration of the Earl, and at the
adverse symptoms which appeared as time passed on.

The Earl slept most of the time. He was in a kind of stupor. This
puzzled the doctor extremely. The remedies which he administered
seemed not to have their legitimate effect. In fact they seemed to
have no effect, and the most powerful drugs proved useless in this
mysterious case.

"It must be the mind," said the doctor to himself, as he rode home
one day after finding the Earl in a lower state than usual. "It must
be the mind; and may the devil take the mind, for hang me if I can
ever make head or tail of it!"

Yet on the night when the doctor soliloquized in this fashion a
change had come over the Earl which might have been supposed to be
for the better. He was exceedingly weak, so weak, indeed, that it was
only with a great effort that he could move his hand; but he seemed
to be more sensible than usual. That "mind" which the doctor cursed
seemed to have resumed something of its former functions. He asked
various questions; and, among others, he wished to hear Guy's last
letter. This Hilda promised he should hear on the morrow. Zillah was
there at the time, and the Earl cast an appealing glance toward her;
but such was her confidence in Hilda that she did not dream of doing
any thing in opposition to her decision. So she shook her head, and
bending over the Earl, she kis