ilsie till she fell asleep. Bye-and-
bye, the housemaid Bessy tapped gently at the door. Norah went to her,
and they spoke in whispers.

"Nurse! there's some one down-stairs wants you."

"Wants me! Who is it?"

"A gentleman--"

"A gentleman? Nonsense!"

"Well! a man, then, and he asks for you, and he rung at the front door
bell, and has walked into the dining-room."

"You should never have let him," exclaimed Norah, "master and missus
out--"

"I did not want him to come in; but when he heard you lived here, he
walked past me, and sat down on the first chair, and said, 'Tell her to
come and speak to me.' There is no gas lighted in the room, and supper
is all set out."

"He'll be off with the spoons!" exclaimed Norah, putting the housemaid's
fear into words, and preparing to leave the room, first, however, giving
a look to Ailsie, sleeping soundly and calmly.

Down-stairs she went, uneasy fears stirring in her bosom. Before she
entered the dining-room she provided herself with a candle, and, with it
in her hand, she went in, looking round her in the darkness for her
visitor.

He was standing up, holding by the table. Norah and he looked at each
other; gradual recognition coming into their eyes.

"Norah?" at length he asked.

"Who are you?" asked Norah, with the sharp tones of alarm and
incredulity. "I don't know you:" trying, by futile words of disbelief,
to do away with the terrible fact before her.

"Am I so changed?" he said, pathetically. "I daresay I am. But, Norah,
tell me!" he breathed hard, "where is my wife? Is she--is she alive?"

He came nearer to Norah, and would have taken her hand; but she backed
away from him; looking at him all the time with staring eyes, as if he
were some horrible object. Yet he was a handsome, bronzed, good-looking
fellow, with beard and moustache, giving him a foreign-looking aspect;
but his eyes! there was no mistaking those eager, beautiful eyes--the
very same that Norah had watched not half-an-hour ago, till sleep stole
softly over them.

"Tell me, Norah--I can bear it--I have feared it so often. Is she dead?"
Norah still kept silence. "She is dead!" He hung on Norah's words and
looks, as if for confirmation or contradiction.

"What shall I do?" groaned Norah. "O, sir! why did you come? how did you
find me out? where have you been? We thought you dead, we did, indeed!"
She poured out words and questions to gain time, as if time would help
her.