She started as she entered; the blind was drawn up, and, leaning against the shutter, in apparent composure, stood Mrs. H----. That composure was dreadful; it was the calm of intense agitation, the silence of boiling heat, the immovability of an object in the most rapid motion. The light was full upon her, showing cheek and forehead flushed, and veins bursting on the small hands. Miss Campbell approached with trembling limbs. "Where is the servant?"--"I did not want her." "Will you not rest?"--"I _can not_!" Miss Campbell was weary and worn out; the picture before her was so terrible, she sunk on the nearest chair in an agony of tears. Without changing her position, Mrs. H---- turned her head, and said, gently, "Oh, do not cry so! it is I who ought to cry, but my heart is as dry as my eyes, and my head is so tight, and I can not think for its aching; I can not think, I can not understand, I can not remember, I don't even know your name, then why should this be true? It is I who am ill, they are well, but they never were so long from me before." Then coming forward, her face working, and her breath held tightly, as if a scream were pressing behind, "Tell me," she said, "tell me--my husband and child--" she tried hard to articulate, but the words were lost in a frightful contortion. Miss Campbell mastered herself, she saw the rack of mental torture was strained to the utmost. Neither could bear this much longer. She almost feared resistance, but she felt there was one way to which the sufferer would respond. "I am weary and tired," she said; "weary with staying up with you all night. If you will lie down, I will soon come and lie by your side." Poor Mrs. H---- said nothing, but let herself be laid upon the bed. Three mortal hours passed, she was burnt with a fever which only her own tears could quench; and those wide-open, dry eyes were fearful to see. A knock came to the door, "How is she now?" said Sir Thomas's voice, "The doctor is here: you look as if you wanted him yourself. I'll bring him up." The medical man entered. Such a case had not occurred in his small country practice before, but he was a sensible and a kind man, and no practice could have helped him here if he had not been. He heard the whole sad history, felt the throbbing pulse, saw the flush on the face, and wide-open eyes, which now seemed scarcely to notice any thing. He took Miss Campbell into another room, and said that the patient must be instantly roused, and then bled if necessary. "But the first you can undertake better than I, madam." He looked round. "Is there no little object which would recall?--nothing you could bring before her sight? You understand me?" Indeed, Miss Campbell did. She had not sat by that bed-side for the last three hours without feeling and fearing that this was necessary; but, at the same time, she would rather have cut off her own hand than undertaken it. She hesitated--but for a moment, and then whispered something to Sir Thomas.