"I have watched you, and when he was with you I never saw that great shining light in your eyes, or that strange moving of your lower lip, that always shows me when you are really glad; as you were that Sunday when the music was so grand; or that rainy morning when we saw the pictures of the 'Two Marys at the Sepulchre.' I almost hated poor Sir Roger, because I was afraid he might take you to England, and then, what would have become of me? Oh! the world seems so different, so beautiful, so peaceful, as long as I have you with me. Everybody praises you, and is proud of you, but nobody loves you, as I do." He took her hand, passed it over his cheek and forehead, and kissed it tenderly. "Felix, do you feel at all sleepy?" "Not at all. Tell me something more about the animalcula that cause the phosphorescence yonder--making the top of each wave look like a fringe of fire. It is true that they are little round things that look like jelly--so small that it takes one hundred and seventy, all in a row, to make an inch; and that a wineglass can hold millions of them?" "I do not feel well enough to-night to talk about animalcula. I am afraid I shall have one of those terrible attacks I had last winter. Felix, please don't go to bed for a while at least; and if you hear me call, come to me quickly. I must write a letter before I sleep. Sit here, will you, till I come back?" For the first time in her life she shrank from the thought of suffering alone, and felt the need of a human presence. "Edna, let me call mamma. I saw this afternoon that you were not well." "No, it may pass off; and I want nobody about me but you." Only a narrow passage divided her room from his; and leaving the door open, she sat down before her desk to answer Mr. Hammond's appeal. As the night wore on, the wind became a gale; the fitful, bluish glare of the lightning showed fearful ranks of ravenous waves scowling over each others' shoulders; a roar as of universal thunder shook the shore, and in the coral-columned cathedral of the great deep, wrathful ocean played a wild and weird fugue. Felix waited patiently, listening amid the dead diapason of wind and wave, for the voice of his governess. But no sound came from the opposite room; and at last, alarmed by the omnious silence, he took up his crutches and crossed the passage. The muslin curtains, blown from their ribbon fastenings, streamed like signals of distress on the breath of the tempest, and the lamplight flickered and leaped to the top of its glass chimney. On the desk lay two letters addressed respectively to Mr. Hammond and Mrs. Murray, and beside them were scattered half a dozen notes from unknown correspondents, asking for the autograph and photograph of the young author. Edna knelt on the floor, hiding her face in the arms which were crossed on the lid of the desk. The cripple came close to her and hesitated a moment, then touched her lightly: "Edna, are you ill, or are you only praying?"