my poor little wife was. She has been here all winter, doctor, living
under my eye, and I've waited on her as her servant, though a rough
servant I am for one like her. She has tried to make herself cheerful
and contented with our poor ways. See, she mended me that bit of net;
those are her meshes, though her pretty white fingers were made sore by
the twine. She would mend it, sitting where you are now in the
chimney-corner. No; if mam'zelle should die, it will be a great grief of
heart to me. If I could offer my life to God in place of hers, I'd do it
willingly."

"No, she will not die. Look there, Tardif!" I said, pointing to the
door-sill of the inner room. A white card had been slipped under the
door noiselessly--a signal agreed upon between Mother Renouf and me, to
inform me that my patient had at last fallen into a profound slumber,
which seemed likely to continue some hours. She had slept perhaps a few
minutes at a time before, but not a refreshing, wholesome sleep. Tardif
understood the silent signal as well as I did, and a more solemn
expression settled on his face. After a while he put away his pipe, and,
stepping barefoot across the floor without a sound, he stopped the
clock, and brought back to the table, where an oil-lamp was burning, a
large old Bible. Throughout the long night, whenever I awoke, for I
threw myself on the fern bed and slept fitfully, I saw his handsome
face, with its rough, unkempt hair falling across his forehead as it was
bent over the book, while his mouth moved silently as he read to himself
chapter after chapter, and turned softly the pages before him.

I fell into a heavy slumber just before daybreak, and when I awoke two
or three hours after I found that the house had been put in order, just
as usual, though no sound had disturbed me. I glanced anxiously at the
closed door. That it was closed, and the white card still on the sill,
proved to me that our charge had no more been disturbed than myself. The
thought struck me that the morning light would shine full upon the weak
and weary eyelids of the sleeper; but upon going out into the fold to
look at her casement, I discovered that Tardif had been before me and
covered it with an old sail. The room within was sufficiently darkened.

The morning was more than half gone before Mother Renouf opened the door
and came out to us, her old face looking more haggard than ever, but her
little eyes twinkling with satisfaction. She gave me a