ere dead--if she should wake
a raving maniac, and all from the evil influence of that woman.

He called no assistance; he watched over Elsie in that lonely chamber,
trying every remedy he could find, but for a long time his efforts were
unavailing; she lay there, white and cold, as if the snowy counterpane
had been her winding sheet.

Just as he was calling her name in a last frenzied burst of grief, Elsie
opened her eyes. She was too feeble for speech, but she remembered
everything clearly, and made a vain effort to rise.

"You must not talk, Elsie; don't stir--you will hurt yourself!"

He searched on the toilet table, found a bottle of laudanum, and
administered as large a dose as he dared; he knew that the effects could
not be so dangerous as her present suffering.

He sat down by the bed, folding his arms about her, calling her by every
endearing name that his tenderness and fear could suggest, striving to
soothe her into slumber.

Elsie would lie quiet for a few moments, then begin to struggle and cry
out, till it seemed to Mellon that she would die before the opiate could
take effect.

The potion worked at length; she lay back on the pillows white and
still--her eyes stared drearily about the chamber once more, and then
closed--she had fallen into a heavy sleep.

For a long hour Grantley Mellen remained on his knees by her bedside,
where he had fallen.

He rose at length. Victoria was knocking at the door, and warning her
young mistress that breakfast was on the table.

Mellen went to the door and opened it, checked the girl's cry of
astonishment with a gesture, and said:

"Miss Elsie is very ill--go downstairs at once, and let there be no
noise in the house."

Vic crept away in frightened silence; Mellen followed her into the hall,
gave orders to one of the men servants to get a horse ready, went into
the library and wrote a dispatch to his physician in the city, and came
out again.

By the time the man was starting off to the station, Clorinda and
several of the servants, to whom Victoria had communicated her tidings,
were assembled in the hall.

In consultation they forgot their awe of the master, and asked a
thousand eager questions, which he answered with brief sternness.

"Go back to your places, all of you," he said; "Miss Elsie is asleep,
and must not be disturbed till the doctor arrives."

"Is missus wid her?" demanded Clo.

He turned upon her with a frown which made her spring back