, and give
me power to forget my own anguish in soothing your last moments."

Edith Euston pressed his hand to her lips, and raising from the floor
a guitar which lay beside her, she poured forth a strain of melody
which seemed to soothe the senses of the invalid to rest. His eyes
closed, and an expression of repose rested on his worn features.

Twilight deepened over the earth--a single ray of light, from the
reddened sky, fell through the open window upon the figure of the
young girl, and the mother, who sat silent and abstracted, thought as
she glanced upon her that even in a higher world her beloved Edith
could wear no lovelier outward semblance than was now hers. There was
an expression of elevated feeling, of pure tenderness in her upturned
face which revealed the high and noble soul within. One fitted to
suffer and conquer in the dark struggle which she felt awaited her.

Hers were not the only eyes which contemplated that lovely picture of
sisterly devotion upon that twilight eve. Another stood without,
beneath the shadow of a high hedge, and gazed upon the unconscious
musician with even deeper admiration; and his dark, expressive
features lighted up with an emotion almost of reverence. The stars
came forth in the translucent depths of ether; the young moon cast her
tremulous light over the garden, yet still the intruder lingered in
his place of concealment. Twice he put the boughs aside, as if to
approach the room and announce his presence, but again receded, as if
irresolute and uncertain as to the effect his presence might produce.

At length all became silent. The tones of the instrument died slowly
away, and the voice of the singer ceased to pour forth its song. The
windows were still unclosed, for the invalid had reached that
distressing stage in his malady, when his oppressed breathing required
a constant circulation of free air. A lamp burning beneath an
alabaster shade was swung from the centre of the ceiling, and its
mellow lustre diffused a faint moonlight radiance throughout the
apartment.

With suppressed breathing the two ladies watched the sleep of the sick
youth, and he who had so earnestly observed every movement of Edith,
ventured to approach so near the open window that the heavy and
interrupted respiration of young Euston was distinctly audible to him;
while his eagle eye sought to penetrate the shadow in which his
features reposed, that he might read upon them the ravages made by
appro