t lay heavily in his.

Salome covered her face and groaned; and rising, he was for the first
time cognizant of her presence. His face flushed deeply.

"How long have you been here?"

"Long enough to discover why you visit 'Solitude' so often."

He could not see her countenance, but her unnaturally hollow tone
pained and shocked him.

"You are very much fatigued, my dear child, and as soon as I have
given some directions to Robert, I will take you home. Get your
bonnet, and meet me at the door."

He took a shawl that was lying on the piano and laid it carefully over
the sleeper, then bent one knee beside the sofa, and mutely prayed
that God would comfort and protect the woman who was becoming so dear
to him.

With one long, anxious, tender look into her hopeless yet beautiful
face, he left the room and went in search of Robert and Katie. When he
had given the requisite directions, and descended the steps, he found
Salome waiting, with her fingers grasping the side of the buggy.
Silently he handed her in; and, as she sank back in one corner and
muffled her face, they drove swiftly through the sombre grounds, where
the aged trees seemed murmuring in response to the ceaseless mutter of
the sullen sea.

"Whom first we love, you know, we seldom wed.
Time rules us all. And Life indeed is not
The thing we planned it out ere hope was dead.
And then we women cannot choose our lot."

CHAPTER XXI.

"Ulpian, you certainly do not intend to sit up again to-night? Even
brass or whitleather would not stand the wear and tear that your
constitution is subjected to. You really make me unhappy."

"My dear Jane, it would make you still more unhappy if from mere
desire to promote my personal ease and comfort, I could forget the
solemn responsibility imposed by my profession. Moreover, my physical
strength is quite equal to the tax I exact from it."

"I doubt it, for we have all remarked how pale and worn you look."

"My jaded appearance is attributable to mental anxiety, rather than
bodily exhaustion."

"If Mrs. Gerome is so ill as to require such unremitting care and
vigilance, she should have a nurse, instead of expecting a physician
to devote all his time and attention to her. Where is Hester
Denison?"

"I have placed her at the steam-mill above town, where there is a bad
case of small-pox, and even if she were not thus engaged, I should not
take her to 'Solitude.'"

"Pray, why not? She took first