thin
arms around that clay from which the soul had departed, and pressed
her wan lips upon the cold brow from which the immortal dweller had
passed away to its immortality.

In the depths of her own grief Zillah was roused by a cry which
expressed a deeper grief than hers--a cry of agony--a cry of despair:

"Oh, my God! Oh, God of mercy! Dead! What? dead! Dead--and no
explanation--no forgiveness!"

And Mrs. Hart fell down lifeless over the form of the dead.

Zillah rose with a wonder in her soul which alleviated the sorrow of
bereavement. What was this? What did it mean?

"Explanation!" "Forgiveness!" What words were these? His
housekeeper!--could she be any thing else? What had she done which
required this lamentation? What was the Earl to her, that his death
should cause such despair?

But amidst such thoughts Zillah was still considerate about this
stricken one, and she called the servants, and they bore her away to
her own room. This grief, from whatever cause it may have arisen, was
too much for Mrs. Hart. Before this she had been prostrated. She now
lost all consciousness, and lay in a stupor from which she could not
be aroused.

The wondering questions which had arisen in Zillah's mind troubled
her and puzzled her at first; but gradually she thought that she
could answer them. Mrs. Hart, she thought, was wonderfully attached
to the Earl. She had committed some imaginary delinquency in her
management of the household, which, in her weak and semi-delirious
state, was weighing upon her spirits. When she found that he was
dead, the shock was great to one in her weak state, and she had only
thought of some confession which she had wished to make to him.

When the doctor came that day he found Zillah still sitting there,
holding the hand of the dead. Hilda came to tell all that she knew.

"About half an hour after Zillah left," she said, "I was sitting by
the window, looking out to see the rising sun. Suddenly the Earl gave
a sudden start, and sat upright in bed. I rushed over to him. He fell
back. I chafed his hands and feet. I could not think, at first, that
it was any thing more than a fainting fit. The truth gradually came
to me. He was dead. An awful horror rushed over me. I fled from the
room to Mrs. Molyneux, and roused her from sleep. She sprang up and
hurried to the Earl. She knows the rest."

Such was Hilda's account.

As for the doctor, he could easily account for the sudden death. It
was _min