"Dear Clara, it would distress him to have you stay; he will be much better attended by me alone." Clara still hesitated; and Traverse, beckoning his mother to come and speak to her, left her side. Mrs. Rocke approached her and said: "It must be so, dear girl, for you know that there are some cases in which sick men should be watched by men only, and this is one of them. I myself shall sit up to-night in the next room, within call." "And may I not sit there beside you?" pleaded Clara. "No, my dear love; as you can do your father no good, he desires that you should go to bed and rest. Do not distress him by refusing." "Oh, and am I to go to bed and sleep while my dear father lies here suffering? I cannot; oh, I cannot." "My dear, yes, you must; and if you cannot sleep you can lie awake and pray for him." Here the doctor, whose agony was growing unendurable, called out: "Go, Clara, go at once, my dear." She went back to the bedside and pressed her lips to his forehead, and put her arms around him and prayed: "Oh, my dear father, may the blessed Saviour take you in his pitying embrace and give you ease to-night. Your poor Clara will pray for you as she never prayed for herself." "May the Lord bless you, my sweet child," said the doctor, lifting one hand painfully and laying it in benediction on her fair and graceful head. Then she arose and left the room, saying to Mrs. Rocke as she went: "Oh, Mrs. Rocke, only last evening we were so happy--'But if we have received good things at the hand of God, why should we not receive evil?'" "Yes, my child; but remember nothing is really evil that comes from His good hand," said Mrs. Rocke, as she attended Clara to the door. His daughter had no sooner gone out of hearing than the doctor gave way to his irrepressible groans. At a sign from Traverse Mrs. Rocke went and took up her position in the adjoining room. Then Traverse subdued the light in the sick chamber, arranged the pillows of the couch, administered a sedative and took up his post beside the bed, where he continued to watch and nurse the patient with unwearied devotion. At the dawn of day, when Clara rapped at the door, he was in no condition to be seen by his daughter. Clara was put off with some plausible excuse. After breakfast his friends the physicians called and spent several hours in his room. Clara was told that she must not come in while they were there. And so, by one means and another, the poor girl was spared from witnessing those dreadful agonies which, had she seen them, must have so bitterly increased her distress. In the afternoon, during a temporary mitigation of pain, Clara was admitted to see her father. But in the evening, as his sufferings augmented, she was again, upon the same excuse that had been used the preceding evening, dismissed to her chamber. Then passed another night of suffering, during which Traverse never left him for an instant.