seen her in Edinburgh a very
great change had been wrought upon her. The eyes, softly glowing with a
quiet radiance as they rested upon his face, were sunk, and the voice
faint and weak. A thin white hand lay upon the coverlet and the great
waves of brown hair which had been his pride, were tumbled about the
thin face framing it in a tangled oak brown frame of deepest beauty.

She lifted her hand as he approached, a sweet smile breaking through
her pain, caught him in radiance of love. "I'm glad you've come, Rob,"
she panted. "I jist wanted to see you again--an'--an' tak' good-by wi'
you," and the quick catch in her words gripped his heart as he knelt
beside the bed, taking the thin hand between his while the tears started
from his eyes and fell upon the white bed cover.

"Oh, Mysie," he said brokenly. His voice refused to go further and he
bent his head upon the bed, trying hard to control himself and keep from
breaking down before her.

"I'm awfu' vexed, Rob," she said, after a while. "It was a' a mistak'
an' naebody's to blame. I ought to hae kent better mysel'," and she
paused again for breath. "I--I should hae kent better, that nae guid
could come--oot o' it--I was just carried awa'. Dinna ever blame
lasses--nor men either, when things happen. They--they canna help
themsel's--" and here again she paused for breath, gasping and fighting
at every word.

"It's a' a mistake, Rob, an' I think it's a' in the way folk look at
thae things." Another pause, while her chest heaved and panted. "Maybe
we dinna look at thae things richt," she again resumed. "We--we mak'
mistak's and canna help oorsel's; but God dinna mean it as--as a
mistak'. It's a' because we think it is. Everything's richt--but we mak'
them wrang in the way we look at them. It wad hae--been a' richt--in oor
mind, if I had been married afore--afore it happened--but because we
werena married--it was wrang. It's a' a mistak' Rob, a' a--" and a burst
of coughing nearly choked her and a flood of blood began to gurgle in
her mouth.

Robert grew alarmed and lifting a cloth began to wipe the blood from her
mouth, looking on her so concerned and anxious that she tried to smile
to him to reassure him.

Presently she lay back with eyes closed and her hand limp in his. A wild
fear took possession of him as he looked upon the scarcely moving
breast, a fear which seemed to communicate itself to the sufferer, and
she opened her eyes again, but the voice was weak and