ded the
servants who came to carry her husband into his bedroom, gave him the
white globule which was to secure him sleep, and with indefatigable
patience turned and moved his pillows till his couch was to his mind. Not
till then, nor till she was satisfied that a servant was keeping watch in
the adjoining room, did she leave him; and then--for there was danger in
delay--she went to seek her son.

This tall, large and rather too portly woman had been in her youth a
slender and elegant girl; a graceful creature though her calm and
expressionless features had never been strikingly beautiful. Age had
altered them but little; her face was now that of a good-looking, plump,
easy-going matron, which had lost its freshness through long and devoted
attendance on the sick man. Her birth and position gave her confidence
and self-reliance, but there was nothing gracious or captivating in her
individuality. The joys and woes of others were not hers; still she could
be moved and stirred by them, even to self-denial, and was very capable
of feeling quite a passionate interest for others; only, those others
must be her own immediate belongings and no one else. Thus a more devoted
and anxious wife, or a more loving mother would have been hard to find;
but, if we compare her faculty for loving with a star, its rays were too
short to reach further than to those nearest to her, and these regarded
it as an exceptional state of grace to be included within the narrow
circle of those beloved by her somewhat grudging soul.

She knocked at Orion's sitting-room, and he hailed her late visit with
surprise and pleasure. She had come to speak of a matter of importance,
and had done so promptly, for her son's and Paula's conduct just now
urged her to lose no time. Something was going on between these two and
her husband's niece was far outside the narrow limits of her loving
kindness.

This, she began by saying, would not allow her to sleep. She had but one
heart's desire and his father shared it: Orion must know full well what
she meant; she had spoken to him about it only yesterday. His father had
received him with warm affection, had paid his debts unhesitatingly and
without a word of reproach, and now it was his part to turn over a new
leaf: to break with his former reckless life and set up a home of his
own. The bride, as he knew, was chosen for him. "Susannah was here just
now," she said. "You scapegrace, she confessed that you had quite tur