flight these thoughts darted through Helen's
mind, and gave an indecision and embarrassment to her manner, which
emboldened Clinton with hopes of success. All at once her countenance
changed. The strangeness of her situation, the lateness of the hour, the
impropriety of receiving such a visitor in that little dark, narrow
passage--the dread of Arthur's coming in, and finding her alone with her
dreaded though splendid companion--the fear that Miss Thusa might waken
and require her assistance--the vision of her father's displeasure and
Mittie's jealous wrath--all swept in a stormy gust before her, driving
away every consideration but one--the desire for escape, and the
determination to effect it. The apprehension of awaking Miss Thusa, by
rushing into her room, died in the grasp of a greater terror.

"Let me go," she exclaimed, wrenching her hand from his tightening hold.
"Let me go. You madden me."

In her haste to open the door the latch rattled, and the door swung to
with a violence that called forth a groan from the awakening sleeper.
Turning the wooden button that fastened it on the inside, she sunk down
into the first seat in her reach, and a dark shadow, flecked with sparks
of fire, floated before her eyes. Chill and dizzy, she thought she was
going to faint, when her name, pronounced distinctly by Miss Thusa,
recalled her bewildered senses. She rose, and it seemed as if the bed
came to her, for she was not conscious of walking to it, but she found
herself bending over the patient and looking steadfastly into her
clouded eyes.

"Helen, my dear," said she, "I feel a great deal better. I must have
slept a long time. Have I not? Give me a little water. There, now sit
down close by my bed and listen. If that knife cuts my breath again, I
shall have to give up talking. Just raise my head a little, and hand me
my spectacles off the big Bible. I can't talk without them. But how dim
the glasses are. Wipe them for me, child. There's dust settled on
them."

Helen took the glasses and wiped them with her soft linen handkerchief,
but she sighed as she did so, well knowing that it was the eyes that
were growing dim instead of the crystal that covered them.

"A little better--a little better," said the spinster, looking wistfully
towards the candle. "Now, Helen, my dear, just step into the other room
and bring here my wheel. It is heavy, but not beyond your strength. I
always bring it in here at night, but I can't do it no