l if it
were not done. Between these conflicting feelings--his desire to
escape, and his desire to fulfill what he considered his
obligations--his brain grew confused, and he sat there impatient for
the end--to see what it might turn out to be.

Another quarter of an hour passed. The General's excitement grew
worse, and was deepening into frenzy. Dr. Cowell looked more and more
anxious, and at last, shrewdly suspecting the cause of the delay,
determined himself to go and take it in hand. He accordingly left his
patient, and was just crossing the room, when his progress was
arrested by the General's springing up with a kind of convulsive
start, and jumping out of bed, declaring wildly and incoherently that
something must be wrong, and that he himself would go and bring
Zillah. The doctor had to turn again to his patient. The effort was a
spasmodic one, and the General was soon put back again to bed, where
he lay groaning and panting; while the doctor, finding that he could
not leave him even for an instant, looked around for some one to send
in his place. Who could it be? Neither the lawyer nor the clergyman
seemed suitable. There was no one left but Guy, who seemed to the
doctor, from his face and manner, to be capable of dealing with any
difficulty. So he called Guy to him, and hurriedly whispered to him
the state of things.

"If the General has to wait any longer, he will die," said the
doctor. "_You'll_ have to go and bring her. You're the only person.
You _must_. Tell her that her father has already had one fit, and
that every moment destroys his last chance of life. She must either
decide to come at once, or else sacrifice him."

He then rang the bell, and ordered the servant to lead Captain
Molyneux to Miss Pomeroy. Guy was thus forced to be an actor where
his highest desire was to be passive. There was no alternative. In
that moment all his future was involved. He saw it; he knew it; but
he did not shrink. Honor bound him to this marriage, hateful as it
was. The other actor in the scene detested it as much as he did, but
there was no help for it. Could he sit passive and let the General
die? The marriage, after all, he thought, had to come off; it was
terrible to have it now; but then the last chance of the General's
life was dependent upon this marriage. What could he do?

What? A rapid survey of his whole situation decided him. He would
perform what he considered his vow. He would do his part toward
savin