, he _had_ it."

"But he is better. I am better. Let me be taken to him. His
mother is not there now. I heard them say she was in Frank's room.
Call papa. He will carry me."

"Oh! poor, poor Cecil. His mother only went to Frank when he did
not need her any more." And Rosamond hid her face on the bed,
afraid to look.

Cecil lay back so white, that Grindstone approached with some drops,
but this made her spring up, crying, "No, no, don't come near me!
You never told me! You deceived me!"

"Don't, don't, ma'am--my dear Miss Charnock--now. It was all for
the best. You would not have been here now."

"And then I should be with him. Rosamond, send her away, I can't
bear her. She sent him away from me that night. I heard her."

"My dear Cecil, this will not do. You are making your father
dreadfully unhappy. Dear Raymond stayed with you till he really
could not sit up any longer, and then he kissed you."

"Kissed me! Oh, where? Did you see? No, don't ask Grindstone.
She made me think he had left me, and fancy--oh, Rosamond! such--
such things! And all the time--"

The moaning became an anguish of distress, unable to weep, like
terrible pain, as the poor young thing writhed in Rosamond's arms.
It was well that this one sister understood what had been in Cecil's
heart, and did believe in her love for Raymond. Rosamond, too, had
caressing power beyond any other of the family, and thus she could
better deal with the sufferer, striving, above all, to bring tears
by what she whispered to her as she held her to her bosom. They
were a terrible storm at last, but Cecil clung to Rosamond through
all, absolutely screaming when Grindstone came near; poor Grindstone
who had been so devoted, though mistaken. Weakness, however, after
the first violent agitation was soothed, favoured a kind of stunned
torpor, and Cecil lay still, except when her maid tried to do
anything for her, and then the passion returned. When old Susan
Alston came with a message, she was at once recognized and
monopolized, and became the only servant whom she would suffer about
her.

The inconvenience was great, but relapse was such an imminent
danger, that it was needful to give up everything to her; and Mr.
Charnock, regarding his daughter's sufferings as the only ones worth
consideration, seemed to pursue Rosamond the instant she had sat
down by the still feeble, weary, convalescent Terry, imploring her
to return to Cecil with the i