am gone. Raise me up: do not fear to hurt me: I feel nothing now, and am helpless as an infant.'

By their united efforts they raised him on the pillow; and then, a pen being placed between his fingers, Helen guided the hand that traced his signature upon the page. The old man, next, with shaking fingers traced his name, Richard Turner, as witness to the document, sobbing as he did so, and shedding the scant and hardly wrung tears of age. A kiss was reverently pressed upon the cold and torpid hand of the master whom from childhood to manhood he had loved and respected; and then the two, who were so soon to part, were left once more alone. The room was restored to its former quiet; and all that was left for Helen was to count the feeble respirations, as the soul seemed struggling to escape its earthly tenement.

Night had closed upon the scene, and the window being open to admit the air, a light wind swept into the chamber, raising the

gauzy curtains, and bringing with it curious moths that fluttered to the candle, and there perished.

Suddenly there broke upon the air a wail of mournful music, soft and low, and sounding almost unearthly to the overwrought imagination of that lonely watcher. It burst forth, clear and thrilling, the melody being wildly beautiful-one of those exquisite Lebewohls which (when played by the music-loving people from whose hearts they spring) speak so eloquently to the sorrowing ones who are to part for ever.

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The touching Farewell' found its way through the mists of approaching dissolution to the dulled senses of the expiring man; and brought back his wandering soul to earth. For a single moment he was young againyoung, with a loved wife near him, and gay children playing by his side: with happiness around him and hope before, and a path strewn with roses on which their feet would tread!

Gertrude, my own,' he murmured; and Helen no longer grudged her those last thoughts, as the calm face grew calmer still beneath their soothing influence. And so,

amidst those blissful memories, he might have yielded up his spirit, but for a disturbing noise of voices speaking loudly, as though in angry argument. Helen, fearing that the sound might in that solemn moment trouble his repose, gently disengaged her hand, and, half opening the door, beheld a sight that filled her with dismay. In the passage, nay, almost in the doorway, stood a lady, whom she knew to be Philip's cousin, and the

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enemy' connected in his mind with the sorest trial in his life.

Her aspect was dark and menacing, as, turning haughtily from Helen, she repeated her commands to the housekeeper (with whom she had been disputing) to admit her at once to the presence of Sir Philip. In a moment Helen was by his side again :

'Philip, dearest,' she whispered, 'it is your

cousin; will you not forgive, that you in your extremity may be forgiven likewise?"

'Forgive,' he muttered, and his words were

scarcely audible, who asks for pardon? She has kissed me, let me die in peace!'

There was no time for further exhortation, for ere Helen could interpose to prevent it, the intruder had pushed her way into the room, and taken up her station at the bed's foot.

'A fitting attendant you have chosen, my dear cousin!' she exclaimed, with a kind of desperate composure; a fitting attendant truly to wait upon you in your sickness; I marvel at your folly, Philip, and at your wilful blindness to the deceptions practised on you. Surely you might find a more fitting nurse than a person, of that description!' and she pointed at Helen scornfully; but I must now really insist upon her removal, for if she remain, it will, of course, be impossible for me to do so, and I am most desirous-'

But here Helen, no longer able to keep silence, interposed:

For the love of God, madam,' she cried, 'be silent! Do you not know that he is dying?'

Mrs. Wraxham, for so she was called, haughtily scanned the eager woman with an irritating impertinence, which under any other circumstances would have stung her to the quick.

Is it possible,' she asked, that you have the audacity to address me, and to remain in my presence when I have desired you to withdraw? Go, you shameless woman; retire to the infamous places to which those of your class resort, and-'

But she had said enough, for scarcely were the cruel words spoken, when Philip, rising in his bed with convulsive, but apparently unconscious effort, shook his hand wildly towards her, and pronounced an awful curse upon her head!

Alas! that those fearful words should have been the last his dying lips could frame! In vain did Helen, with strained attention,