He promised to do so; and, to please him, I laid my head on the pillow of the couch. He removed the lamp from my eyes, but in vain I closed them, and tried to sleep. Every now and then I kept opening them again, and talking in that excited way, which is the result of over-wrought emotion. "Cornelius," I said, "I am now quite resolved to stay with you. I should feel too miserable to be even a day away. Always thinking about typhus, you know." "Sleep, child," was his only reply. I tried; but awhile afterwards I was again talking. "And the Academy!" I said, "and 'The Young Girl Reading'! Are the other pictures sold?" I half-rose on one elbow to look at Cornelius, who sat a little behind me. Without answering, he made me lie down again, and laid his hand on my eyes and brow. He possessed, perhaps, something of mesmeric power, for unconsciously I fell asleep; but mine was not a deep or perfect slumber. I was aware of a change that I could not understand or define. I felt, however, some one bending over me, and a long and lingering kiss was pressed on my brow. "It is Cornelius going up-stairs," I thought even in my sleep, but without awakening. My next remembrance is that I looked up with sudden terror, and that I found myself face to face with Kate, who sat by the table weeping bitterly. I looked for Cornelius and saw him not. "Kate, Kate!" I cried, starting to my feet, "where is he? What has happened?" She shook her head and never replied. I crossed the room and opened the door of the front parlour; it was empty and in confusion; I ran to the front door, opened it, and looked down the moonlit street. "Cornelius!" I cried, "Cornelius!" I paused and listened; all I heard was the sound of a carriage rolling away in the distance. My voice died on my lips in broken accents; my arms fell by my side powerless and dead. He was gone! gone without a word of explanation or adieu. In this one circumstance I read a remote journey and a long absence, and yet I would believe in neither. I re-entered the parlour where Kate still sat in the same attitude. I went up to her. "So he is gone to Yorkshire to see Mr. Smalley?" I said agitatedly. "He is gone to Spain," she briefly answered. My heart fell. "To Spain! for a few months, I suppose?" "For years!" "I don't believe it!" I cried, angrily; "he could not, would not do such a thing. You want to frighten me, Kate, but I don't believe you; no, I don't." "You do; in your heart you do; in your heart you know it." I did know it; for I gave way to a burst of passion and grief, and spoke to Kate as I never before had spoken. "Gone! gone to Spain, and for years! Kate! how dare you let him go and not tell me?" She looked up at me; her eyes flashing through her tears.