"It is my will," she faintly smiled, watching me as I added my name
at the bottom. "We have had to do without lawyers, but I don't think
there will be any one to dispute my last wishes." And taking the
paper in her hand, she glanced hastily at it, then folded it, and
handed it back to me with a look that made my heart leap with
uncontrollable emotion. "I can trust you," she said, and fell softly
back upon the pillow.

"You had better go for Dr. Farnham," whispered Mrs. Gannon in my
ear, with an ominous shake of her head.

And though I felt it to be futile, I hastened to comply.

But Dr. Farnham was out, attending to a very urgent case, I was
told; and so, to my growing astonishment and dismay, were Dr.
Spaulding and Dr. Perry. I was therefore obliged to come back alone,
which I did with what speed I could; for I begrudged every moment
spent away from the side of one I had so lately learned to love, and
must so soon lose.

Mrs. Gannon met me at the door, and with a strange look, drew me in
and pointed towards the bed. There lay Ada, white as the driven
snow, with closed eyes, whose faintly trembling lids alone betokened
that she was not yet fled to the land of quiet shadows. At her side
was a picture of the man she loved, and on her breast lay a bunch of
withered roses I could easily believe had been his last gift. It was
a vision of perfect peace, and I could not but contrast it with what
my imagination told me must have been the frenzied anguish of that
other death.