re tears
were shed by the lookers-on from pity towards Hugh than Felix.

But where was she, the bride and wife of a changeful day--of a day, in
which the extremities of happiness and misery met? Oh, where but where
she should and ought to be, at his bed-side, hoping against hope,
soothing his wild ravings by her soft sweet voice; and when, in his
delirium, the happy scene of the past day seemed reacted, then she
knelt, ever ready to lead him, by her words and caresses, into a
forgetfulness of his present pain. In his desperate struggles he fancied
they were tearing her from him; and when the strength of several men
could scarce restrain him, then came the mildness of her power. With her
gentle hands and her fond, kind words she laid him in peace once more,
and, kneeling by his side, cooled his burning temples with her pale
fingers, and wetted his parched lips with the draught prescribed by the
physician. When the crisis, however, approached, she saw by the keen
glance of observant affection, that the doctor's manner betrayed his
hopelessness of her husband's recovery. Then did her strength give way,
and one violent fit of hysteric sobbing almost broke down her reason
and physical powers. Unavailing was all their tenderness, and fruitless
every attempt at consolation. Even her own beloved mother failed.
"Alley, asthore agruc machree," said she, "don't give way to this, for
it's sinful; it's wrong to cry so bitterly for the livin'. You know that
while there's life there's hope. God is merciful, and may think fit to
pity you, anien machree, and to spare him for the sake of our prayers,
that your heart mayn't be broken. Here's the priest, too, an' sure it's
a comfort, if the Lord does take him from us, that he's not goin' widout
the holy sacraments of the Church, to clear away any stain of sin that
may be on him."

Felix, tranquilized by the satisfaction that always results from the
consciousness of having received the rites of the Church, yet moved
by the deep sobbings of his miserable brother, took his hand, and thus
addressed him--

"Hugh dear!"

"Oh, Felix, Felix, Felix darling, if you spake kind to me my brain will
turn, and my heart will burst to pieces! Harsh, harsh, avourneen, speak
harshly, cruelly, blackly--oh, say you won't forgive me--but no, that I
couldn't bear--forgive me in your heart, and before God, but don't spake
wid affection to me, for then I'll not be able to bear it."

"Hugh," said Felix, from