sharper and paler every moment. Faintly she sank back on
the pillows, and faintly whispered to him to kneel and pray. He
obeyed her mechanically. . . . 'No--not for me, for them--for them,
and for yourself--that you may save them whom I never dreamt that I
was bound to save!'

And he knelt and prayed . . . what, he alone and those who heard his
prayer, can tell. . . .

* * * * *

When he lifted up his head at last, he saw that Argemone lay
motionless. For a moment he thought she was dead, and frantically
sprang to the bell. The family rushed in with the physician. She
gave some faint token of life, but none of consciousness. The
doctor sighed, and said that her end was near. Lancelot had known
that all along.

'I think, sir, you had better leave the room,' said Mrs. Lavington;
and followed him into the passage.

What she was about to say remained unspoken; for Lancelot seized her
hand in spite of her, with frantic thanks for having allowed him
this one interview, and entreaties that he might see her again, if
but for one moment.

Mrs. Lavington, somewhat more softly than usual, said,--'That the
result of this visit had not been such as to make a second
desirable--that she had no wish to disturb her daughter's mind at
such a moment with earthly regrets.'

'Earthly regrets!' How little she knew what had passed there! But
if she had known, would she have been one whit softened? For,
indeed, Argemone's spirituality was not in her mother's language.
And yet the good woman had prayed, and prayed, and wept bitter
tears, by her daughter's bedside, day after day; but she had never
heard her pronounce the talismanic formula of words, necessary in
her eyes to ensure salvation; and so she was almost without hope for
her. Oh, Bigotry! Devil, who turnest God's love into man's curse!
are not human hearts hard and blind enough of themselves, without
thy cursed help?

For one moment a storm of unutterable pride and rage convulsed
Lancelot--the next instant love conquered; and the strong proud man
threw himself on his knees at the feet of the woman he despised, and
with wild sobs entreated for one moment more--one only!

At that instant a shriek from Honoria resounded from the sick
chamber. Lancelot knew what it meant, and sprang up, as men do when
shot through the heart.--In a moment he was himself again. A new
life had begun for him--alone.

'You will not need to grant my p