t up ever so small an alarm, I would have conjured my
father to send for Guy, entreated pathetically that the reconciliation
might be effected, and have drawn my last breath clasping their hands,
thus! The curtain falls!'

He made a feint of joining their hands, put his head back, and shut his
eyes with an air and a grace that put Charlotte into an ecstasy, and
made even Amy laugh, as she quitted the room, blushing.

'But if it had been your last breath,' said Charlotte, 'you would not
have been much the wiser.'

'I would have come to life again in time to enjoy the "coup de theatre".
I had some thoughts of trying an overdose of opium; but I thought Dr.
Mayerne would have found me out. I tell you, because it is fair I
should have the credit; for, Guy, if you knew what she was to me all the
winter, you would perceive my superhuman generosity in not receiving you
as my greatest enemy.'

'I shall soon cease to be surprised at any superhuman generosity,' said
Guy. 'But how thin you are, Charlie; you are a very feather to carry; I
had no notion it had been such a severe business.'

'Most uncommon!' said Charles, shaking his head, with a mock solemnity.

'It was the worst of all,' said Mrs. Edmonstone, 'six weeks of constant
pain.'

'How very sorry Philip must have been!' exclaimed Guy.

'Philip?' said Charlotte.

'Why, was it not owing to him? Surely, your father told me so. Did not
he let you fall on the stairs?'

'My dear father!' exclaimed Charles, laughing; 'every disaster that
happens for the next twelvemonth will be imputed to Philip.'

'How was it, then?' said Guy.

'The fact was this,' said Charles; 'it was in the thick of the
persecution of you, and I was obliged to let Philip drag me upstairs,
because I was in a hurry. He took the opportunity of giving me some
impertinent advice which I could not stand. I let go his arm, forgetting
what a dependent mortal I am, and down I should assuredly have gone, if
he had not caught me, and carried me off, as a fox does a goose, so
it was his fault, as one may say, in a moral, though not in a physical
sense.'

'Then,' said his mother, 'you do think your illness was owing to that
accident?'

'I suppose the damage was brewing, and that the shake brought it into an
active state. There's a medical opinion for you!'

'Well, I never knew what you thought of it before,' said Mrs.
Edmonstone.

'Why, when I had a condor to pick on Guy's account with Philip, I was
n