"Dr. Grey, I know as well as you do that I can't last a great while, and I ought to prepare for what may overtake me any day. I have tried to live in accordance with the law of God, and I am not afraid to die; but I am afraid to leave my mistress behind me. When I am gone there will be no one to watch over and plead with her, and I dread lest her precious soul may be lost. She won't go to God for herself, or by herself, and who will pray for her salvation when I am in my shroud? Oh, I can not die in peace, leaving her alone in the world she hates and despises! What will become of my poor, bonnie bairn?" Elsie sobbed aloud, and Dr. Grey asked,-- "Has Mrs. Gerome no living relatives?" "None, sir, in America. There are some cousins in Scotland, but she has never seen them, and never will." "Where are the members of her husband's family?" A visible shudder crept over that portion of the woman's body which was not paralyzed, and her face grew dark and stern. "He was an orphan." "His loss seems to have had a terrible effect upon Mrs. Gerome, and rendered her bitter and hopeless." "How hopeless, none but she and I and the God above us know. Once she was the meekest, sweetest spirit, that ever gladdened a nurse's heart, and I thought the world was blessed by her coming into it; but now she is sacrilegious and scoffing, and almost dares the Lord's judgments. Dr. Grey, it would nearly freeze your blood to hear her sometimes. Poor thing! she will have no companions, and so has a habit of talking to herself, and I often hear her arguing with the Almighty about her life, and the trouble He allowed to fall into it. Last night she was walking there under my window, begging God to take her out of the world before I die. Begging, did I say? Nay,--demanding. My precious, pretty bairn!" "Elsie, be candid with me. Is not Mrs. Gerome partially deranged?" She struggled violently to raise herself, but failing, her head fell back, and she lifted her finger angrily. "No more deranged than you or I. That is a vile slander of busybodies whom she will not receive, and who take it for granted that no lady in her sound senses would refuse the privilege of gossiping with them. She is as sane as any one, though there is an unnatural appearance about her, and if her heart was only as sound as her head I could die easily. They started the report of craziness long, long ago, in order to get hold of her fortune; but it was too infamous a scheme to succeed." Elsie's strong white teeth were firmly set, and her clenched fingers did not relax. "Who started the report of her insanity?" "One who injured her, and made her what you see her." "She had no children?" "Oh, no! Once I begged her to adopt a pretty little orphan girl we saw in Athens, but she ridiculed me for an old fool, and asked me if I wished to see her warm a viper to sting what was left of her heart."