part. But I knew as little as she what it meant. Ah! how often
do anxious friends question us, and hearken eagerly for our replies,
when the signs of disease are yet too indefinite for any clear
diagnosis!

"I can tell better after seeing your daughter," said I. And we went up
to the sick girl's chamber; that north-west room, at the window of which
I had first seen the fair stranger, as I stood wondering in storm and
darkness. I found her lying in apparent sleep, and breathing heavily.
Her face was flushed; and I noticed the peculiar odor that usually
accompanies an eruptive fever.

"How do you feel now?" I asked.

She had opened her eyes as I took her hand. She did not answer, but
looked at me in a half bewildered way. Her skin was hot and the pulse
small, but tense and corded.

"Does your head ache?"

I wished to arouse her to external consciousness.

"Oh, it's you, Doctor."

She recognized me and smiled faintly.

"How are you now?" I inquired.

"Not so well, I think, Doctor," she answered. "My head aches worse than
it did; and I feel sick all over. I don't know what can ail me."

"Have you any uneasiness, or sense of oppression in the stomach?" I
inquired.

"Oh, yes, Doctor." She laid her hand upon her chest; and drew in a long
breath, as if trying to get relief.

"Have you felt as well as usual for a week, or ten days past?" I
inquired.

"No, Doctor." It was the mother who answered my question. "And in order
that you may understand the case clearly, let me say, that it is only a
week since we arrived from England. We came over in a steamer, and were
fifteen days in making the trip. From Boston, we came here in our own
carriage. Before leaving home, Blanche went around to see a number of
poor cottagers in our neighbourhood, and there was sickness at several
of the places where she called. In one cottage, particularly, was a case
of low fever. I was troubled when I learned that she had been there, but
still hoped that her excellent state of health would repel anything
like contagion. During the first part of our voyage, she suffered
considerably from sea-sickness; but got along very well after that. If
it hadn't been for the unhappy scenes of the last few days, with their
painfully exciting consummation, I think she would have thrown off,
wholly, any lurking tendency to disease."

I turned my face partly aside, so that its expression could not be seen.
The facts stated, and the symptoms as now prese