"That I had been horrible--that I had been mad. Nothing could never unsay it. I frightened him--I almost struck him." "Poor fellow!" I smiled. "Yes--pity him. He was kind. But he'll see me that way--always!" I hesitated as to the answer it was best to make to this; then I produced: "Don't think he'll remember you--he'll see other girls." "Ah, he'll _forget_ me!" she softly and miserably wailed; and I saw that I had said the wrong thing. I bent over her more closely, to kiss her, and when I raised my head her mother was on the other side of the bed. She fell on her knees there for the same purpose, and when Louisa felt her lips she stretched out her arms to embrace her. She had the strength to draw her close, and I heard her begin again, for the hundredth time, "Mother, mother----" "Yes, my own darling." Then for the hundredth time I heard her stop. There was an intensity in her silence. It made me wildly nervous; I got up and turned away. "Mother, mother," the girl repeated, and poor Helen replied with a sound of passionate solicitation. But her daughter only exhaled in the waiting hush, while I stood at the window where the dawn was faint, the most miserable moan in the world. "I'm dying," she said, articulately; and she died that night, after an hour, unconscious. The doctor arrived almost at the moment; this time he was sure it must have been the heart. The poor parents were in stupefaction, and I gave up half my visits and stayed with them a month. But in spite of their stupefaction I kept my vow. COLLABORATION