Her first thought was the window. Alas! it was too small even for her to
get her head through. She cried out. No one answered; there was no one
to answer. She was alone in the cottage, and helpless, and away over the
cliffs, toward Mallory Grange, she could see a small, dark figure
walking steadily along, with bent head and swift steps. The cottage
stood by itself, a mile from the village, and was approached only by a
cliff path. She turned away from the window in despair. It seemed to her
then that the time for her final sacrifice had indeed come.

It was a warm, drowsy morning, and the air which floated in through the
open lattice window was heavy with the perfume of flowers, mingled with
the faint ozone of the sea. Outside, the placid silence was broken only
by the murmurous buzzing of insects and the soft lapping of the tide
upon the shingly sands. Within the room, a pale-faced girl knelt upon
the floor, with her long, slim fingers stretched upward, and the
passionate despair of death in her cold, white features. The sunshine
laughed upon her hair, and glanced around her, bathing her beautiful
face in its fresh, bright glory. Was it an answer to her prayer, she
wondered--her prayer for peace and forgiveness? Oh, that it might be so!
God grant it!

There was no fear in her face, though only a moment before she had taken
out and swallowed the contents of that little packet of poison which had
burned in her bosom for those last few days. But there had been just one
passing shade of bitterness. Her life had been so short, so joyless,
until there had come to her that brief taste of wonderful, amazing
happiness. She was young to die--to die with the delirium of that
passionate joy still burning in her veins.

"Yet, after all, it is best!" she whispered softly, at the end of that
unspoken prayer; and with those words of calm resignation, a change
crept softly in upon her face. It seemed almost as though, while yet on
earth, there had come to her a touch of that exquisite spiritual beauty
which follows only upon the extinction of all earthly passion, and the
uplifting into a purer, sweeter life. And her eyes closed upon the
sunlight, and darkness stole in upon her senses. She lay quite still
upon the floor; but the smile still lingered upon her lips, making her
face more lovely even in its cold repose than when the glow of youth and
life had shone in her dark, clear eyes, and lent expression to her
features. Saints like