r state was such that she could see the hangings of
the bed tremble with her tremors. She had declared overnight that she
did not require any one to sit up with her, but she now rang a little
handbell, and in a few minutes a nurse appeared; Ruth Stockwool, an
island woman and neighbour, whom Mrs. Pierston knew well, and who knew
all Mrs. Pierston's history.

'I am so nervous that I can't stay by myself,' said the widow. 'And I
thought I heard Becky dressing Miss Avice in her wedding things.'

'O no--not yet, ma'am. There's nobody up. But I'll get you something.'

When Mrs. Pierston had taken a little nourishment she went on: 'I can't
help frightening myself with thoughts that she won't marry him. You see
he is older than Avice.'

'Yes, he is,' said her neighbour. 'But I don't see how anything can
hender the wedden now.'

'Avice, you know, had fancies; at least one fancy for another man; a
young fellow of five-and-twenty. And she's been very secret and odd
about it. I wish she had raved and cried and had it out; but she's been
quite the other way. I know she's fond of him still.'

'What--that young Frenchman, Mr. Leverre o' Sandbourne? I've heard a
little of it. But I should say there wadden much between 'em.'

'I don't think there was. But I've a sort of conviction that she saw him
last night. I believe it was only to bid him good-bye, and return him
some books he had given her; but I wish she had never known him; he is
rather an excitable, impulsive young man, and he might make mischief.
He isn't a Frenchman, though he has lived in France. His father was a
Jersey gentleman, and on his becoming a widower he married as his second
wife a native of this very island. That's mainly why the young man is so
at home in these parts.'

'Ah--now I follow 'ee. She was a Bencomb, his stepmother: I heard
something about her years ago.'

'Yes; her father had the biggest stone-trade on the island at one time;
but the name is forgotten here now. He retired years before I was born.
However, mother used to tell me that she was a handsome young woman,
who tried to catch Mr. Pierston when he was a young man, and scandalized
herself a bit with him. She went off abroad with her father, who had
made a fortune here; but when he got over there he lost it nearly all in
some way. Years after she married this Jerseyman, Mr. Leverre, who had
been fond of her as a girl, and she brought up his child as her own.'

Mrs. Pierston paused, but a