bedside told her that God's
help had found the fatherless daughter in her affliction. Grateful tears
gathered in her eyes as she looked: she softly closed the door, and went
on to Magdalen's room. There doubt stayed her feet at the threshold, and
she waited for a moment before going in.

A sound in the room caught her ear--the monotonous rustling of a woman's
dress, now distant, now near; passing without cessation from end to end
over the floor--a sound which told her that Magdalen was pacing to and
fro in the secrecy of her own chamber. Miss Garth knocked. The rustling
ceased; the door was opened, and the sad young face confronted her,
locked in its cold despair; the large light eyes looked mechanically
into hers, as vacant and as tearless as ever.

That look wrung the heart of the faithful woman, who had trained her and
loved her from a child. She took Magdalen tenderly in her arms.

"Oh, my love," she said, "no tears yet! Oh, if I could see you as I have
seen Norah! Speak to me, Magdalen--try if you can speak to me."

She tried, and spoke:

"Norah," she said, "feels no remorse. He was not serving Norah's
interests when he went to his death: he was serving mine."

With that terrible answer, she put her cold lips to Miss Garth's cheek.

"Let me bear it by myself," she said, and gently closed the door.

Again Miss Garth waited at the threshold, and again the sound of the
rustling dress passed to and fro--now far, now near--to and fro with
a cruel, mechanical regularity, that chilled the warmest sympathy, and
daunted the boldest hope.

The night passed. It had been agreed, if no change for the better showed
itself by the morning, that the London physician whom Mrs. Vanstone had
consulted some months since should be summoned to the house on the next
day. No change for the better appeared, and the physician was sent for.

As the morning advanced, Frank came to make inquiries from the cottage.
Had Mr. Clare intrusted to his son the duty which he had personally
performed on the previous day through reluctance to meet Miss Garth
again after what he had said to her? It might be so. Frank could throw
no light on the subject; he was not in his father's confidence. He
looked pale and bewildered. His first inquiries after Magdalen showed
how his weak nature had been shaken by the catastrophe. He was not
capable of framing his own questions: the words faltered on his lips,
and the ready tears came into his eyes. Miss Gar