you shouldn't see her--but she's not to
be reasoned with. A caution, miss. Don't be too ready to believe what
my wife may say to you. She's had a fright." He opened the door. "In my
belief," he whispered, "she's off her head."

Emily crossed the threshold. Mr. Rook softly closed the door behind her.

CHAPTER LXI. INSIDE THE ROOM.

A decent elderly woman was seated at the bedside. She rose, and spoke
to Emily with a mingling of sorrow and confusion strikingly expressed on
her face. "It isn't my fault," she said, "that Mrs. Rook receives you in
this manner; I am obliged to humor her."

She drew aside, and showed Mrs. Rook with her head supported by many
pillows, and her face strangely hidden from view under a veil. Emily
started back in horror. "Is her face injured?" she asked.

Mrs. Rook answered the question herself. Her voice was low and weak; but
she still spoke with the same nervous hurry of articulation which had
been remarked by Alban Morris, on the day when she asked him to direct
her to Netherwoods.

"Not exactly injured," she explained; "but one's appearance is a
matter of some anxiety even on one's death-bed. I am disfigured by a
thoughtless use of water, to bring me to when I had my fall--and I can't
get at my toilet-things to put myself right again. I don't wish to shock
you. Please excuse the veil."

Emily remembered the rouge on her cheeks, and the dye on her hair,
when they had first seen each other at the school. Vanity--of all human
frailties the longest-lived--still held its firmly-rooted place in
this woman's nature; superior to torment of conscience, unassailable by
terror of death!

The good woman of the house waited a moment before she left the room.
"What shall I say," she asked, "if the clergyman comes?"

Mrs. Rook lifted her hand solemnly "Say," she answered, "that a dying
sinner is making atonement for sin. Say this young lady is present, by
the decree of an all-wise Providence. No mortal creature must disturb
us." Her hand dropped back heavily on the bed. "Are we alone?" she
asked.

"We are alone," Emily answered. "What made you scream just before I came
in?"

"No! I can't allow you to remind me of that," Mrs. Rook protested. "I
must compose myself. Be quiet. Let me think."

Recovering her composure, she also recovered that sense of enjoyment
in talking of herself, which was one of the marked peculiarities in her
character.

"You will excuse me if I exhibit religion," sh