"We will live together, Cecilia, again," murmured the earl. "Dear papa, don't distress yourself; if you do, I really must go away from you." "No, no; you must not, Cecilia," murmured the earl, sadly and faintly, and shaking his head. "Have you seen him to-day?" he presently asked with a little more energy, as if he were becoming more and more thoroughly awake, and aware of his position; and there was a marked difference in the expression of his eye--partly perplexed, partly alarmed. "No, papa--I left the moment it happened, and came here; and have been here ever since. Do, dear papa, be calm!" added Lady Cecilia, with perfect composure. "There!--I am gone blind _again_," exclaimed the earl, suddenly, and raised his trembling hands to his eyes. "_So you knew it all?_" said he, presently, tremulously removing his hands, and looking up, as if the momentary obscuration of his sight had ceased. "Oh yes, papa, of course! How could I help it? Try to go to sleep again, dear papa." There was a faint dash of petulance in her manner. They were at terrible cross purposes. His eye remained fixed steadily on that of his daughter. "Is it not horrible, Cecilia?" said he, with a shudder. "Dear papa, I don't know what you mean," replied Cecilia, quite startled by the tone of his voice, and the look of his eye. There was nothing wild or unnatural about it. The eye seemed that of a man in his full senses, but horrified by some frightful recollection or other. "I thought it would have killed her," he muttered, closing his eyes, while a faint flush came over his face, but that of Lady Cecilia turned deadly pale. "Don't speak again, dear," whispered Miss Macspleuchan, herself a little startled by the earl's manner--"he's wandering--he'll go to sleep presently." "Yes, in my grave, madam," replied the earl, solemnly, in a hollow tone--at the same time turning towards Miss Macspleuchan an eye which suddenly blanched her face--"but even there I shall not _forget_!" She gazed at him in silence, and apprehensively, trembling from head to foot. There ensued a pause of a minute or two. "Oh, Cecilia!" said the earl, presently, shaking his head, and looking at her with the same terrible expression which had so startled her before--"that I had first followed you to your grave!" "My dear papa, you are only dreaming!" "No, I am not. Oh! how can _you_, Cecilia, be so calm here, when you know that you have married a"---- Lady Cecilia glanced hurriedly at Miss Macspleuchan, who, having risen a little from her chair, was leaning forward in an agitated manner, and straining her ear to catch every word-- "What are you talking about, papa?" gasped Lady Cecilia, while her face became of a deadly whiteness. "Why, I thought you knew it all," said the earl, sustained and stimulated by the intensity of his feelings--"that this Titmouse--is--Mr. Gammon has acknowledged all--an infamous impostor--an illegitimate"----