ich it was so desirable that Denbigh
should take, and it now stood rejected on a table, where it could be seen
through the open door of his room. Almost breathless, she glided in, and
taking the draught in her hand, she approached the bed, by which sat John
alone, listening with a feeling of despair to the wanderings of the sick
man. Emily hesitated once or twice, as she drew near Denbigh; her face had
lost the paleness of anxiety, and glowed with another emotion.

"Mr. Denbigh--dear Denbigh." said Emily, with energy, unconsciously
dropping her voice into the softest notes of persuasion, "will you refuse
_me?--me_, Emily Moseley, whose life you have saved?"

"Emily Moseley!" repeated Denbigh, and in those tones so remarkable to his
natural voice. "Is she safe? I thought she was killed--dead." Then, as if
recollecting himself, he gazed intently on her countenance--his eye became
less fiery--his muscles relaxed--he smiled, and took, with the docility of
a well-trained child, the prescribed medicines from her hand. His ideas
still wandered, but his physician, profiting by the command Emily
possessed over his patient, increased his care, and by night the fever had
abated, and before morning the wounded man was in a profound sleep. During
the whole day, it was thought necessary to keep Emily by the side of his
bed; but at times it was no trifling tax on her feelings to remain there.
He spoke of her by name in the tenderest manner, although incoherently,
and in terms that restored to the blanched cheeks of the distressed girl
more than the richness of their native color. His thoughts were not
confined to Emily, however: he talked of his father, of his mother, and
frequently spoke of his poor deserted Marian. The latter name he dwelt on
in the language of the warmest affection, condemned his own desertion of
her, and, taking Emily for her, would beg her forgiveness, tell her her
sufferings had been enough, and that he would return, and never leave her
again. At such moments his nurse would sometimes show, by the paleness of
her cheeks, her anxiety for his health; and then, as he addressed her by
her proper appellation, all her emotions appeared absorbed in the sense of
shame at the praises with which he overwhelmed her. Mrs. Wilson succeeded
her in the charge of the patient, and she retired to seek that repose she
so greatly needed.

On the second morning after receiving the wound, Denbigh dropped into a
deep sleep, from whic