, or again her mind would wander, and the
poor decrepit creature, lying upon her bed, would imagine herself young
again, and speak incoherently of the scenes and incidents of her early
days. Then she would address me as Henry again, and call upon me to
revenge some insult or slight, of which (whatever my suspicions might
be) the only record lay in her insane memory. "They have always been
so," she would murmur: "they never loved man or woman but they forsook
them. Je me vengerai, O oui, je me vengerai! I know them all: I know
them all: and I will go to my Lord Stair with the list. Don't tell
me! His religion can't be the right one. I will go back to my mother's
though she does not love me. She never did. Why don't you, mother? Is
it because I am too wicked? Ah! Pitie, pitie. O mon pere! I will make
my confession"--and here the unhappy paralysed lady made as if she would
move in her bed.

Let us draw the curtain round it. I think with awe still, of those rapid
words, uttered in the shadow of the canopy, as my pallid wife sits by
her, her Prayer-book on her knee; as the attendants move to and fro
noiselessly; as the clock ticks without, and strikes the fleeting hours;
as the sun falls upon the Kneller picture of Beatrix in her beauty, with
the blushing cheeks, the smiling lips, the waving auburn tresses, and
the eyes which seem to look towards the dim figure moaning in the bed.
I could not for a while understand why our aunt's attendants were so
anxious that we should quit it. But towards evening, a servant stole
in, and whispered her woman; and then Brett, looking rather disturbed,
begged us to go downstairs, as the--as the Doctor was come to visit the
Baroness. I did not tell my wife, at the time, who "the Doctor" was; but
as the gentleman slid by us, and passed upstairs, I saw at once that he
was a Catholic ecclesiastic. When Theo next saw our poor lady, she
was speechless; she never recognised any one about her, and so passed
unconsciously out of life. During her illness her relatives had called
assiduously enough, though she would see none of them save us. But when
she was gone, and we descended to the lower rooms after all was over, we
found Castlewood with his white face, and my lady from Kensington, and
Mr. Will already assembled in the parlour. They looked greedily at us as
we appeared. They were hungry for the prey.

When our aunt's will was opened, we found it dated five years back, and
everything she had was