"That is all over with now, my daughter. I shall love my little grandson as dearly as I love his mother, soon," replied Mrs. Carroll; "but now, love, I cannot allow you to talk any longer. Excitement is not good for you. Run away to bed, Xenie. We do not need you to-night." "Let me stay and share your vigil," pleaded Xenie. "No, it is my turn to-night. Last night you sat up, you know. I will steal a little rest upon the lounge when Lora gets composed to sleep again." Xenie went away to her room and threw herself across the bed, dressed as she was, believing that she was too excited to go to sleep again. But a gradual drowsiness stole over her tumultuous thoughts, and she was soon wrapped in a troubled, dreamful slumber. Daylight was glimmering faintly into the room, when Mrs. Carroll rushed in, pale and terrified, and shook her daughter wildly. "Oh, Xenie, wake, wake, for God's sake!" she cried, in the wildest accents of despair and terror. "Such a terrible, terrible thing has happened to Lora!" CHAPTER XIV. Xenie sprang to her feet, broad awake at those fearful words. "Oh, mamma!" she gasped, in terror-stricken accents, "what is it? My sister--is she worse? Is she----" She thought of death, but she paused, and could not bring her lips to frame that terrible word, and stood waiting speechlessly, with parted lips and frightened, dark eyes, for her mother to speak. But Mrs. Carroll, as if that one anguished sentence had exhausted all her powers, fell forward across the bed, her face growing purple, her lips apart in a frantic struggle for breath. Xenie hurriedly caught up a pitcher of water standing near at hand, and dashed it into her convulsed face, with the quick result of seeing her shiver, gasp, and spring up again. "Mamma, speak!" she cried, shaking her wildly by the arm; "what has happened to you? What has happened to Lora?" Mrs. Carroll's eyes, full of a dumb, agonizing terror, turned upon Xenie's wild, white face. She tried to speak, but the words died chokingly in her throat, and she lifted her hand and pointed toward the door. Instantly Xenie turned, and rushed from the room. As she crossed the narrow hallway a breath of the fresh, chilly morning air blew across her face. The door that Mrs. Carroll had securely locked the night before was standing wide open, and the wind from the sea was blowing coolly in. With a terrible foreboding of some impending calamity, Xenie sprang through the open doorway of Lora's room, and ran to the bed. Oh! horrors, the bed was empty! The beautiful young mother and the little babe, the day-star of Xenie's bright hopes, were gone! Xenie looked around her wildly, but the pretty little chamber was silent and tenantless. With a cry of fear and dread commingled, she rushed toward the door, and encountered her mother creeping slowly in, like a pallid ghost, in the chilly, glimmering dawn of the new day.