bottle circulated, he exhibited such
a faculty for apt, but to the brothers, totally incomprehensible
quotation, that they fled from him without leaving him time to remember
what special calamity was on his mind, or whether this earth was
other than an abode conceived in great jollity for his life-long
entertainment.

CHAPTER XLII. JULIANA

The sick night-light burned steadily in Juliana's chamber. On a couch,
beside her bed, Caroline lay sleeping, tired with a long watch. Two
sentences had been passed on Juliana: one on her heart: one on her body:
'Thou art not loved'; and, 'Thou must die.' The frail passion of her
struggle against her destiny was over with her. Quiet as that quiet
which Nature was taking her to, her body reposed. Calm as the solitary
night-light before her open eyes, her spirit was wasting away. 'If I am
not loved, then let me die!' In such a sense she bowed to her fate.

At an hour like this, watching the round of light on the ceiling, with
its narrowing inner rings, a sufferer from whom pain has fled looks
back to the shores she is leaving, and would be well with them who walk
there. It is false to imagine that schemers and workers in the dark
are destitute of the saving gift of conscience. They have it, and it is
perhaps made livelier in them than with easy people; and therefore, they
are imperatively spurred to hoodwink it. Hence, their self-delusion is
deep and endures. They march to their object, and gaining or losing it,
the voice that calls to them is the voice of a blind creature, whom any
answer, provided that the answer is ready, will silence. And at an
hour like this, when finally they snatch their minute of sight on the
threshold of black night, their souls may compare with yonder shining
circle on the ceiling, which, as the light below gasps for air,
contracts, and extends but to mingle with the darkness. They would be
nobler, better, boundlessly good to all;--to those who have injured them
to those whom they have injured. Alas! for any definite deed the limit
of their circle is immoveable, and they must act within it. The trick
they have played themselves imprisons them. Beyond it, they cease to be.

Lying in this utter stillness, Juliana thought of Rose; of her beloved
by Evan. The fever that had left her blood, had left it stagnant,
and her thoughts were quite emotionless. She looked faintly on a far
picture. She saw Rose blooming with pleasures in Elburne House, sliding
as