as
more perfectly in health, and yet do I know that ere three hours be
past, I shall be no more.'

'Sir, sir,' said she, a good deal startled, but wishing to conceal
the impression which the calm solemnity of his manner had, in her own
despite, made upon her, 'Sir, you should not jest; you should not even
speak lightly upon such subjects. You trifle with what is sacred--you
are sporting with the best affections of your wife----'

'Stay, my good lady,' said he; 'if when this clock shall strike the hour
of three, I shall be anything but a helpless clod, then upbraid me. Pray
return now to your sister. Lady Ardagh is, indeed, much to be pitied;
but what is past cannot now be helped. I have now a few papers to
arrange, and some to destroy. I shall see you and Lady Ardagh before my
death; try to compose her--her sufferings distress me much; but what is
past cannot now be mended.'

Thus saying, he went upstairs, and Lady D---- returned to the room where
her sisters were sitting.

'Well,' exclaimed Lady Ardagh, as she re-entered, 'is it not so?--do you
still doubt?--do you think there is any hope?'

Lady D---- was silent.

'Oh! none, none, none,' continued she; 'I see, I see you are convinced.'
And she wrung her hands in bitter agony.

'My dear sister,' said Lady D----, 'there is, no doubt, something
strange in all that has appeared in this matter; but still I cannot but
hope that there may be something deceptive in all the apparent calmness
of Sir Robert. I still must believe that some latent fever has affected
his mind, or that, owing to the state of nervous depression into which
he has been sinking, some trivial occurrence has been converted, in
his disordered imagination, into an augury foreboding his immediate
dissolution.'

In such suggestions, unsatisfactory even to those who originated them,
and doubly so to her whom they were intended to comfort, more than two
hours passed; and Lady D---- was beginning to hope that the fated term
might elapse without the occurrence of any tragical event, when Sir
Robert entered the room. On coming in, he placed his finger with a
warning gesture upon his lips, as if to enjoin silence; and then having
successively pressed the hands of his two sisters-in-law, he stooped
sadly over the fainting form of his lady, and twice pressed her cold,
pale forehead, with his lips, and then passed silently out of the room.

Lady D----, starting up, followed to the door, and saw him take a