the
marriage; and as some important portions of the trousseau, together with
a valuable package of jewels intended by Don Luis as presents for his
bride, were expected at the same time, the young man announced his
intention of riding across the hills to ----, in order to superintend
the conveyance of the carriage and its contents along the rough mountain
roads that it must traverse.

"We were all sitting around the great fireplace in the winter parlor on
the evening before his departure. Miss Collingham had been languid and
depressed throughout the day, and often adverted to the long wintry ride
he was to undertake in a strain of apprehension at which Don Luis
laughed gayly. To divert her mind, he recounted various adventures
which had befallen him in foreign lands, with a vigorous simplicity of
description which enchained her attention and interested us all.

"Suddenly, so sitting, Miss Collingham leaned forward, and in a changed,
eager voice exclaimed, 'Luis, take away your hand from your throat!'

"We looked. Luis' hands were lying one over the other on his knee in a
careless attitude that was habitual to him.

"'Take it away, I say! Oh, take it away!'

"Miss Collingham started to her feet as she uttered these words almost
in a shriek, and then fell back rigid and senseless, her outstretched
hand still pointing to her betrothed.

"The fit was a severe one, but by morning it had yielded to remedies,
and Luis set off early on his ride, to make the most of the short
daylight, and intending to return with the carriage on the morrow. All
that day Miss Collingham remained in a half-conscious state. It was a
dreary day of gloom, with a piercing north wind, and toward evening the
snow began to fall in those close, compact flakes which forebode a heavy
storm. We were glad to think that Luis must have reached his destination
before it began; but when the next morning dawned on a wide expanse of
snow, and the air was still thick with fast-falling flakes, it was
feared that the state of the roads would preclude all hope of the
arrival of the carriage on that day.

"My patient took no heed of the untoward state of the weather. She was
still in a drowsy condition, very unlike that which usually succeeded
her attacks, and Miss Henderson, who had watched by her through the
night, told me she spoke more than once in a strange, excited manner, as
though carrying on a conversation with some one whom she appeared to see
by her b