he foot of the bed;
she had moved softly to the side, and now stood by her mother's pillow,
opposite to Enid, with her eyes fixed watchfully, balefully, upon her
mother's face. But Mrs. Meldreth seemed unconscious of her daughter's
gaze.

"I've something to say to you, my pretty," she said, with long pauses
between the sentences--longer and longer as the laboring breath became
more difficult and the task of speech more painful. "Sabina would nigh
kill me if she knew. But I can't die with this thing on my mind. If I've
wronged you and yours, and my own flesh and blood as well, I want to
make amends."

"Is she--does she know what she is saying?" said Enid, raising her eyes
to the Rector's face, with a touch of doubt and alarm in their pensive
depths.

Before Mr. Evandale could answer Sabina broke in wildly.

"No, she don't--she don't know what she's saying; I told you so before!
She's got her head full of mad fancies; she's not responsible, and
you've no business to listen to her ravings. It ain't fair--it ain't
fair--it ain't fair!" She concluded with a sob of passion that broke, in
spite of her efforts to control herself, from her whitening lips, but
which brought no tears with it to her eyes.

"Control yourself," said the Rector gravely. "We shall make all
allowance for your mother's state of mind. But, if there is anything
that she ought to confess, any act of dishonesty or unfaithfulness while
she served Miss Vane's parents or uncle, then let her speak and humble
herself in the sight of God, in whose very presence she, like all of us,
will shortly stand."

The Rector's solemn tones awed Sabina into momentary quiescence, and
reached even the dying woman's dulled ears.

"It is the parson," she said feebly. "Yes, I'm glad he's here, and Miss
Enid too. I can't go into the Almighty's presence with a lie on my
lips--can I, parson? It would weigh me down--down--down to hell. I must
confess!"

"You've nothing to confess," said Sabina, almost fiercely; "lie still
and hold your tongue, mother! You'll only bring shame on us both; and
it's not true--not true!"

"You know then that your mother has something on her mind? In God's name
be silent and let her speak!" said Mr. Evandale.

Enid looked up at her with wondering pity. Indeed Sabina Meldreth
presented at that moment a strange and even tragic appearance. The hot
unnatural color had left her cheeks, her ashy lips were strained back
from her clenched teeth, her e