ara! or inhuman revenge! You are lost, dearest Sara! I
too am lost! Would the world were lost with us!

Scene VI.

Sara, Norton, Betty.

SARA.

He is gone! I am lost? What does he mean? Do you understand him,
Norton? I am ill, very ill; but suppose the worst, that I must die, am
I therefore lost? And why does he blame you, poor Betty? You wring your
hands? Do not grieve; you cannot have offended him; he will bethink
himself; Had he only done as I wished, and not read the note! He could
have known that it must contain the last poisoned words from Marwood.

BETTY.

What terrible suspicion! No, it cannot be. I do not believe it!

NORTON (_who has gone towards the back of the stage_).

Your father's old servant, Miss.

SARA.

Let him come in, Norton.

Scene VII.

Waitwell, Sara, Betty, Norton.

SARA.

I suppose you are anxious for my answer, dear Waitwell. It is ready
except a few lines. But why so alarmed? They must have told you that I
am ill.

WAITWELL.

And more still.

SARA.

Dangerously ill? I conclude so from Mellefont's passionate anxiety
more than from my own feelings. Suppose, Waitwell, you should have
to go with an unfinished letter from your unhappy Sara to her still
more unhappy father! Let us hope for the best! Will you wait until
to-morrow? Perhaps I shall find a few good moments to finish off the
letter to your satisfaction. At present, I cannot do so. This hand
hangs as if dead by my benumbed side. If the whole body dies away as
easily as these limbs----you are an old man, Waitwell, and cannot be
far from the last scene. Believe me, if that which I feel is the
approach of death, then the approach of death is not so bitter. Ah! Do
not mind this sigh! Wholly without unpleasant sensation it cannot be.
Man could not be void of feeling; he must not be impatient. But, Betty,
why are you so inconsolable?

BETTY.

Permit me, Miss, permit me to leave you.

SARA.

Go; I well know it is not every one who can bear to be with the dying.
Waitwell shall remain with me! And you, Norton, will do me a favour, if
you go