eeling half stunned and her mind clouded; but now a delicious,
slumberous lethargy came over her, to which her whole being urged her
to yield. But every time her eyes closed, the thought of the morrow shot
through her brain, and finally, with a great effort, she sat up, took
some water--which was always close at hand--shook into it the remaining
pillules in the bottle, and drank it off to the very last drop.

Her hand was steady; the happy smile on her lips, and the eager
expression of her eyes, might have led a spectator to believe that she
was thirsty and had mixed herself a refreshing draught. She had no look
of a desperate creature laying violent hands on her own life; she
felt no hesitancy, no fear of death, no burthen of the guilt she was
incurring--nothing but ecstatic weariness and hope; blissful hope of a
life without end, united to those she loved.

Hardly had she swallowed the deadly draught when she shivered with a
sudden chill. Raising herself a little she called her maid, who was
sitting up in the adjoining room; and as the woman looked alarmed at
her mistress's fixed stare, she stammered out: "A priest--quick--I am
dying."

The woman flew off to the viridarium to call Sebek, who was standing in
front of the tablinum with the Vekeel; she told him what had happened,
and the Negro gave him leave to obey his dying mistress, escorting him
as far as the gate. Just outside, the steward met a deacon who had
been giving the blessing of the Church to a poor creature dying of the
pestilence, and in a few minutes they were standing by the widow's bed.

The locks of her sons' hair lay by her side; her hands were folded over
a crucifix; but her eyes, which had been fixed on the features of the
Saviour, had wandered from it and again gazed up to Heaven.

The priest spoke her name, but she mistook him for her son and murmured
in loving accents:

"Orion, poor, poor child! And you, Mary, my darling, my sweet little
pet! Your father--yes, dear boy, only come with me.--Your father is
kind again and forgives you. All those I loved are together now, and no
one--Who can part us? Husband--George, listen..."

The priest performed his office, but she paid no heed, still staring
upwards; her smiling lips continued to move, but no articulate sound
came from them. At last they were still, her eyelids fell, her hands
dropped the crucifix, a slight shiver ran through her limbs, which then
relaxed, and she opened her mouth as tho