e cried, as she sank upon her knees
by the bedside and pressed her lips to the thin white hand lying outside
the sheet.

"Laury," he said, feebly; "you, dear? Wasn't that Bel?"

"Yes, yes; but you must not talk. Oh, thank God! thank God, you know us
once again!"

"Know you?" he said, smiling, "of course. Where's aunt?"

"Downstairs, dear, asleep. She is so worn-out with watching you."

"Watching me?" he said, with a little child-like laugh. "Yes, of
course, she is always watching."

He gently raised his hand, to place it upon his sister's head, and it
lay there passive for some time, till Laura realised that her brother
was fast asleep; and then she stole away to join Isabel in the next
room.

The next day Chester was a little stronger, but it was as if his mind
was passing through the early stages once more, he was so child-like and
weak; and it was not until the third day of his recovering his senses
after the terrible brain fever through which he had passed that he
remembered Isabel again, and asked if he had not seen her there.

Laura told him yes, that she had been there, and he asked no more; but
as the days went on he learned all. That his sister had returned to
town with his aunt and written to the servant from their hotel to pack
up the clothes and books they had left behind, and received an answer
back that Chester was dying of brain fever.

This brought sister and aunt to his side, to find that Isabel had been
with him from the first, watching him night and day. Then they shared
the task with her, till the first rays of reason began to shine out of
his eyes.

"But where is she now? Why does she not come?" he said rather
fretfully.

"She left directly you seemed to be out of danger, Fred."

"But how unkind. Why should she do that?"

"Why, Fred--why?" said his sister gazing at him wonderingly. "Oh,
brother, brother, you do not grasp all yet."

Laura Chester was wrong; he did grasp it at that moment, for the past
came back like a flash, and he uttered a low groan as he recalled the
contents of that letter, the words seeming to stand out vividly before
his eyes.

From that hour his progress towards recovery was slower than before, and
he lay thinking that the words contained in that letter were true--that
it was good-bye for ever and that his life was hopelessly wrecked.

The return of health and strength contradicted that, though, as a year
passed away, and then another year, in th