visit had in part enabled him to throw off.
Once more he felt the pressure of the silence, and the room in
which he sat became haunted with a terrible vacancy--a vacancy
cold and shadowy with an unrelieved gloom. There all round him
were the familiar household gods; there they stood in their
appointed places, but where was the hand that ruled them, the
deity that gave grace to that domestic kingdom of the moors? He
looked for the shadow of her form as it was wont to fall on the
hearth, but there was only a blank. He lent his ear to catch the
voice so often raised in merry snatch of song, but not the echo of
a sound greeted him. There was a room only, swept and garnished,
but empty. Then he thought of the great drama of life which was
being enacted in the chamber overhead, and he asked himself why
the hours were so many and why they walked with such leaden feet.
There was she, his Merry, torn between the forces of life and
death, giving of her own that she might perpetuate life, and
braving death that life might be its lord--there was she, fighting
alone! save for the feeble help of science and the cheer and
succour of kindly care, while he, strong man that he was, sat
there, powerless, his very impotence mocking him, and his groans
and anguish but the climax of his despair.

In a little while Matt's mother came downstairs with hopelessness
written on every line of her hard face.

'Thaa'll hev to mak' up thi mind to say good-bye to Miriam, lad.
Hoo's noan baan to howd aat much longer. Hoo's abaat done, poor
lass!'

'Yo' mornd talk like that to me, mother, or I'll put yo' aat o'
the haase. I'm noan baan to say good-bye to Merry yet, by ---- I'
ammot!'

'Well, lad, thaa's no need to be either unnatural nor blasphemous
o'er th' job. What He wills, He wills, thaa knows; and if thaa
willn't bend, thaa mun break.'

'But I'll do noather, mother. Miriam's noan baan to dee yet, I con
tell yo'.'

Just then Dr. Hale descended from the chamber, and beckoning Matt,
whispered in his ear that he deemed it right to tell him that he
feared the worst would overtake his wife, and that she would like
to see him.

The words came to Matt as the first great blow of his life. True,
he had anticipated the worst; but now that it came it was tenfold
more severe than his anticipation. Looking at Dr. Hale with eyes
too dry for tears, he said:

'Aw connot see her, doctor; aw connot see her. Yo' an' th' women
mun do yor best; and don't f