ere incoherent rambling? Could one guide their
thoughts in any way?

"The moment we were inside the door, she flung off her bonnet and cloak,
and came upstairs quickly and softly.

"She walked to the bedside, and stood looking down at him, but he was
quite unconscious of her presence, and continued muttering. I suggested
that she should speak to him, but she said she was sure it would be
useless, and drawing a chair back into the shadow, sat down beside him.

"Seeing she was no good to him, I tried to persuade her to go to bed, but
she said she would rather stop, and I, being little more than a girl
then, and without much authority, let her. All night long he tossed and
raved, the one name on his lips being ever Louise--Louise--and all night
long that woman sat there in the shadow, never moving, never speaking,
with a set smile on her lips that made me long to take her by the
shoulders and shake her.

"At one time he imagined himself back in his courting days, and pleaded,
'Say you love me, Louise. I know you do. I can read it in your eyes.
What's the use of our pretending? We _know_ each other. Put your white
arms about me. Let me feel your breath upon my neck. Ah! I knew it, my
darling, my love!'

"The whole house was deadly still, and I could hear every word of his
troubled ravings. I almost felt as if I had no right to be there,
listening to them, but my duty held me. Later on, he fancied himself
planning a holiday with her, so I concluded. 'I shall start on Monday
evening,' he was saying, and you can join me in Dublin at Jackson's Hotel
on the Wednesday, and we'll go straight on.'

"His voice grew a little faint, and his wife moved forward on her chair,
and bent her head closer to his lips.

"'No, no,' he continued, after a pause, 'there's no danger whatever. It's
a lonely little place, right in the heart of the Galway
Mountains--O'Mullen's Half-way House they call it--five miles from
Ballynahinch. We shan't meet a soul there. We'll have three weeks of
heaven all to ourselves, my goddess, my Mrs. Maddox from Boston--don't
forget the name.'

"He laughed in his delirium; and the woman, sitting by his side, laughed
also; and then the truth flashed across me.

"I ran up to her and caught her by the arm. 'Your name's not Louise,' I
said, looking straight at her. It was an impertinent interference, but I
felt excited, and acted on impulse.

"'No,' she replied, very quietly; 'but it's the nam