l redeem you, Lina. She is too
magnanimous for severity, too pure for cowardly hesitation"----

Lina began to weep on her pillow, till the pale hands with which she
covered her face, were wet with tears.

"Oh! she is good--she is an angel of love and mercy; but this is why it
is impossible for me to go back--don't ask me, oh! Ralph, Ralph, you are
killing me with this kindness. Go away, go away! perhaps God will let me
die, and then all will be right."

"Lina, this is infatuation; you _shall_ return home with me; have no
fear of my presence; in a week after you accept the shelter of my
father's roof, again I go away."

For an instant Lina brightened up, then a still more mournful expression
came to her eyes, quenching the gleam of yearning hope, and she shook
her head with a gesture of total despondency. "Don't, don't, my heart is
breaking. I could tell her nothing; _he_ has forbidden it."

"_He!_" repeated the young man, furiously, "great heavens, can you plead
such authority, and to me?"

"Forgive me, oh, forgive me; I am so feeble, so miserably helpless,
words escape me when I do not know it. Do not bring them up against me.
Oh, Ralph, I am very unhappy. The lonesomeness was killing me, and now
you have come upon me unawares, to turn that dull anguish into torture.
How could you ask me to go home? it was cruel--ah, me, how cruel!"

"What can I do, how shall I act?" cried Ralph, appealing to Agnes
Barker, who stood earnestly regarding the scene.

"Leave her at present," said the girl, softly smoothing Lina's tresses
with her hand. "Reflection may induce her to accept your noble offer;
certainly, at present, she is too ill for any attempt at a removal."

"I will consult my mother," said Ralph, looking mournfully down upon the
unhappy girl, whose eyelids began to quiver from the weight of tears
that pressed against them, when he spoke of her benefactress; "Lina,
promise me not to leave this place till I have consulted with her."

Again Lina struggled for energy to speak, but her voice only reached him
in a hoarse whisper.

"Ralph, don't; please never mention me to mamma, it can only do
harm--promise this, Ralph. I cannot plead, I cannot weep, but if this is
my last breath it prays you not to mention that you saw me, to your
mother."

Ralph hesitated till he saw Lina's eyes, that were fixed imploringly
upon him, closing with a deathly slowness, while her face became as
pallid as the linen on which it rested