"Indeed, indeed!" she murmured, with a strangely pathetic note in her voice--as though she were pitying herself. "If we but knew--if we but knew! But to do everything for the best--what can one do more? A heavy punishment is about to fall upon me, and yet I thought I was acting right. Go to my husband. He may need you when he wakes." She glided up the stairs to Mildred's room, and I re-entered the study. Carew still slept, and I remained at my vigil till noon without observing any change in him. In addition to my position being one of embarrassment, I found myself labouring under a feeling of exhaustion. I had had no rest; and had passed a long and anxious day and night. Insensibly my eyes closed; I struggled against Nature's demand, but it was too imperative to be successfully resisted, and at length I fell asleep. So thoroughly worn out was I that it was evening before I awoke. Carew, also awake, was gazing at me as I opened my eyes. "I would not disturb you," he said. "You appeared to be thoroughly exhausted." "I am not so young as I was," I observed, with an attempt at lightness. "Have you been awake long?" "For some hours," he replied. I glanced at the table; the papers were still there; his eyes followed the direction of mine, and he nodded gently. "Have you remained with me the whole time?" I asked. "Oh, no. I left the room two or three times. My wife looked in occasionally to see if you still slept." He motioned with his hand to a corner of the table, and I saw bread, and meat, and wine there. "Eat," he said; "you must be hungry." I was glad of the food, and the wine gave me strength. Carew himself drank two glasses. "We are but poor, gross creatures," he said, "dependent upon a crumb of bread for the life we think so wonderful. Is the scheme which created it monstrous or beneficent? Is it the work of an angel or a devil? Have you finished?" "Yes." "Something is necessary between you and me, something which must not remain unspoken. The time for concealments, evasions, self-delusions, torturing doubts (now cleared up, fatally), is at an end." "One question first," I said, thinking of Emilius; "has Mrs. Carew left the house during the time I have slept?" "No; I forbade her. I have still for some few hours a will of my own." He touched the papers written by his father. "After I left you here yesterday, you discovered these?" "I discovered them before you gave me the record of your life to read." "You have read it?" "Every word."