I did see it;
I watched her dying for a year and more. I am sure she is an angel now.
I like to think so, though I shall never see her again. I would not
believe otherwise if a thousand priests said it and swore it; for I
never moved from her side, after she was dead, till I saw the smile come
on her face. She must have been happy then; do you not think so? They
would hardly have gone on punishing her forever. It was all my fault,
you know."

He gazed at Livingstone anxiously, almost timidly. Guy bowed his head in
assent, but he could not find words to answer just then. There was
something very terrible in that opening of the flood-gates when a life's
pent-up remorse broke forth.

"I think you will end better than I have done," Mohun went on, "though
you are going down-hill fast now. But I have no right even to warn you.
Only take care--" He broke off suddenly, and roused himself with an
effort. "I shall go home and dress now, and get through what little I
have to write, and then lie down for an hour or two. Nothing makes the
hand shake like a sleepless night. I'll call for you in good time." So
he went away.

Livingstone sat thinking, without ever closing his eyes, till Mohun
returned. The latter looked fresh and alert; he had slept for the time
he had allotted to himself quite calmly and comfortably; the old habits
of picket-duty had taught him to watch or sleep at pleasure.

After Guy had made a careful toilette, at the special request of his
principal they started, and in forty minutes were on the ground. Levinge
and his second, with the surgeon, arrived almost immediately; the former
stood somewhat apart, keeping the lower part of his face carefully
muffled.

It was a dull, chill morning; the sky of a steely-gray, without a
promise of a gleam from the sun, which had risen _somewhere_, but was
reserving himself for better times. There was a sort of desultory wind
blowing, just strong enough at intervals to bring the moist brown leaves
sullenly down.

After the pistols had been scientifically loaded, the seconds placed
their men fifteen yards apart--with such known shots it was not worth
while shortening the distance.

The sensations of ordinary mortals under such circumstances are somewhat
curious. Very few are afraid, I think; but one has an impression that
one's own proportions are becoming sensibly developed--"swelling
wisibly," in fact, like the lady at the Pickwickian tea-fight--while
those of our ad