.

"Lina, Lina, I promise anything, only do not turn so white!" he
exclaimed, terrified by her stillness.

She opened her eyes quickly, and tried to smile, but the effort died out
in a faint quiver of the lips. She was too much exhausted even for
weeping.

"Come," said Agnes, laying her hand on the young man's arm; "this
excitement will do her more injury than you dream of. Go down stairs a
little while, and wait for me there."

Ralph took Lina's poor little hand from its rest on the counterpane,
and, with a touch of his old tenderness, was about to press his lips
upon it; but a bitter memory seized him, and he dropped it, murmuring,
"Poor child, poor child, it is a hard wish, but God had been merciful if
this stillness were, indeed, death!"

A pang of tender sorrow ran through Lina's apparently lifeless frame, as
a broken lily is disturbed by the wind, but she had no strength even for
a sob; she heard his footsteps as he went out, but they sounded afar
off, and, when all was still, she fell into total unconsciousness.

Then the woman who had received Ralph and Agnes came in from an
adjoining room, and, bending down, listened for the breath that had just
been suspended; when satisfied that the poor sufferer was totally
unconscious, she turned with a fierce look upon Agnes.

"Now, Agnes, tell me the meaning of this intrusion. How dare you bring
that young man here without my permission?"

"I brought him, madam, because you were resolved to leave my share of
the compact half-performed. Did I not warn you in the beginning that his
alienation from this girl must be complete? Nothing would convince him
that she was utterly lost, but the sight he has just witnessed. It was a
dangerous experiment, but I have conquered with it."

"And for what purpose? I tell you, girl, all this craft and perseverance
is exhausted for nothing. You are constantly crossing my purposes, and
only to defeat yourself in the end."

"It is useless reasoning in this fashion," answered Agnes, insolently;
"half-confidences always lead to confusion. The truth is, madam, you
have not at any time really studied my interests; there is something
beyond it all that I have had no share in from the first. I have been
frank and above-board, while you are all mystery. My love for the young
gentleman below was confessed the moment my own heart became conscious
of it. Nothing but his lingering trust in this frail thing kept back all
the response to that l