much in fashion, and which had hitherto deadened a nature
so kind, an intellect ordinarily so clear. Could his thoughts but once
take the right direction, she had strong confidence in the distinctness
of their views, but most of all in the goodness of the Deity.

"Raoul," she whispered, "God is there, as he is with us, on this rock.
His spirit is everywhere. Bless him!--bless him in thy soul, my beloved,
and be forever happy!"

Raoul answered not. His face was upturned, and his eye still remained
riveted on that particular star. Ghita would not disturb him, but,
taking his hand in hers, she once more knelt and resumed her prayers.
Minute passed after minute, and neither seemed disposed to speak. At
length Ghita became woman again, and bethought her of her patient's
bodily wants. It was time to administer the liquids of the surgeon, and
she advanced to hold them to his lips. The eye was still fastened on the
star, but the lips did not meet her with the customary smile of love.
They were compressed, as when the body was about to mingle in the
strife of a battle, a sort of stern resolution being settled on them.
Raoul Yvard was dead.

The discovery of the truth was a fearful moment to Ghita. Not a living
being near her had the consciousness of her situation, all being bound
in the sleep of the weary. The first feeling was that which belonged to
her sex. She threw herself on the body, and embraced it wildly, giving
way to those pent-up emotions which her lover, in his moody humors, was
wont to accuse her of not possessing. She kissed the forehead, the
cheeks, the pallid, stern lips of the dead; and, for a time, there was
the danger that her own spirit might pass away in the paroxysm of her
grief. But it was morally impossible for Ghita to remain long under the
influence of despair. Her gentle spirit had communed too long and too
closely with her Heavenly Father, not to resort to his support in all
the critical moments of life. She prayed, for the tenth time that night,
and arose from her knees calm, if not absolutely resigned.

The situation of Ghita was now as wildly picturesque as it was moving to
her inmost spirit. All around her still slept, and that, to the eye, as
profoundly as he who was only to rise again when the sea and the land
give up their dead. The excitement and exertions of the past day
produced their reaction, and seldom did sleep exercise a more profound
influence. The fire was still burning bright on