de
of the bed, a cloud of white fleecy drapery floating over her lap; a
golden arrow, the very last in the day, God's quiver darted through the
half-open blinds into the clusters of her fair ringlets. She was the
most unaffected of human beings, and yet her every attitude was the
perfection of grace, as if she sat as a model to the sculptor. I thought
there was a shade of sadness on her brow. Perhaps she had seen me
conceal the note, and imagined something clandestine and mysterious
between me and her brother, that brother whose exclusive devotion had
constituted the chief happiness of her life. Though it was a simple
note, and the words were few, intended only to comfort and sustain, they
were of such priceless value to me, I could not bear that even Edith's
eye should become familiar with its contents. But her love and
confidence were too dear to be sacrificed to a refinement of romance.

"Dear Edith," said I, putting the note in her hand, and an arm round her
neck, "it was a gift of consolation you brought me;" and then I told her
all that I had over-heard, and of the exceeding bitterness of my
anguish.

"I know it,--mamma and I both know it,--brother told us. I did not speak
of it, for you looked as if you had forgotten it after I came in, and I
did not wish you to recall it. You must forget it, indeed you must. Such
cruel insinuations can never alienate from you the friends who love you.
They rather bind you closer to our hearts. Come, we have no time to
lose. You know we must assist each other."

I insisted on being her handmaid first, and lingered over her toilet
till she literally escaped from my hands and drew behind the lace
curtains like a star behind a cloud. Our dresses were alike, as the
generous Edith had willed. They were of the most exquisite India muslin,
simply but elegantly decorated with the finest of lace. I had never
before been arrayed for an evening party, and as the gauzy fulness of
drapery fell so softly and redundantly over the form I had been
accustomed to see in the sad-colored robes of mourning, I hardly
recognized my own lineaments. There was something so light, so ethereal
and graceful in the dress, my spirit caught its airiness and seemed
borne upwards as on wings of down. I was about to clasp on my precious
necklace and bracelets of hair, when observing Edith's beautiful pearl
ornaments, corresponding so well with the delicacy and whiteness of her
apparel, I laid them aside, resolvi