She did not ask; her lips refused to speak his name, and
would nobody tell her?

At last she overheard her father saying to Eddie, "What has become of
Lester Leland? It strikes me as a little ungallant that he has not been in
to inquire after the health of your aunt and sister."

"He has gone away," Eddie answered, "he left the morning after the
accident."

"Gone away," echoed Elsie's sinking heart. "Gone away, and so suddenly!
what could it mean?" She stole away to her own room to indulge, for a
brief space, in the luxury of tears, then, with a woman's instinctive
pride, carefully removed their traces, and rejoined the family with a face
all wreathed in smiles.

CHAPTER THIRTIETH.

"Love is not to be reasoned down or lost,
In high ambition, or a thirst for greatness;
'Tis second life, it grows into the soul,
Warms ev'ry vein, and beats in ev'ry pulse;
I feel it here; my resolution melts."
--ADDISON.

Enna lay at the point of death for weeks. Mrs. Travilla was her devoted
nurse, scarcely leaving her day or night, and only snatching a few hours
of rest occasionally, on a couch in an adjoining room whence she could be
summoned at a moment's notice.

Mr. Travilla at length remonstrated, "My darling, this is too much, you
are risking your own life and health, which are far more valuable than
hers."

"O Edward," she answered, the tears shining in her eyes, "I must save her
if I can. I am praying, praying that reason may come back and her life be
spared till she has learned to know him, whom to know aright is life
eternal."

"My precious, unselfish little wife!" he said, embracing her with emotion,
"I believe your petition will be granted; that the Master will give you
this soul for your hire, saying to you as to one of old, 'According to
your faith be it unto you.'

"But, dearest," he added, "you must allow others to share your labor,
others upon whom she certainly has a nearer claim. Where is Mrs. Conly?"

"Aunt Louise says she has no talent for nursing," Elsie answered with a
half smile, "and that Prilla, mammy and Dinah are quite capable and I am
very foolish to take the work off their hands."

"And I am partly of her opinion," he responded playfully; then more
seriously, "will you not, for my sake and for your children's, spare
yourself a little."

"And for your father's," added Mr. Dinsmore, whose quiet step as he
entered the roo