girl and at her son. No doubt she thought many things, but deemed it
prudent to give them no utterance for the present. She allowed the girl
to retire as though nothing unusual had occurred, superintended the
servants who came to carry her husband into his bedroom, gave him the
white globule which was to secure him sleep, and with indefatigable
patience turned and moved his pillows till his couch was to his mind.
Not till then, nor till she was satisfied that a servant was keeping
watch in the adjoining room, did she leave him; and then--for there was
danger in delay--she went to seek her son.

This tall, large and rather too portly woman had been in her youth a
slender and elegant girl; a graceful creature though her calm and
expressionless features had never been strikingly beautiful. Age had
altered them but little; her face was now that of a good-looking, plump,
easy-going matron, which had lost its freshness through long and devoted
attendance on the sick man. Her birth and position gave her confidence
and self-reliance, but there was nothing gracious or captivating in her
individuality. The joys and woes of others were not hers; still she
could be moved and stirred by them, even to self-denial, and was very
capable of feeling quite a passionate interest for others; only, those
others must be her own immediate belongings and no one else. Thus a more
devoted and anxious wife, or a more loving mother would have been hard to
find; but, if we compare her faculty for loving with a star, its rays
were too short to reach further than to those nearest to her, and these
regarded it as an exceptional state of grace to be included within the
narrow circle of those beloved by her somewhat grudging soul.

She knocked at Orion's sitting-room, and he hailed her late visit with
surprise and pleasure. She had come to speak of a matter of importance,
and had done so promptly, for her son's and Paula's conduct just now