just heard the Doctor say, he did not believe she would live the night through. This is clear luck, what mother would call providential. At any rate, you know, if she should not be any worse, you can sit up till 12 o'clock, and I will just tap at Phillis's bed-room window, and you won't refuse, Jane, to slip the bolt of the outside door for me."
Jane told her she could not take part in her projects; but, Elvira trusting to the impulse of her cousin's good-nature, adhered to her plan.
Mrs. Wilson was not, on this occasion, so keen-eyed as usual. She had, that very day, received proposals of marriage from a broken merchant. and though she had no idea of jeopardizing her estates and liberty, she was a good deal fluttered with what she would fain have believed to be a compliment to her personal charms. Every thing succeeded to Elvira's most sanguine expectations. Her mother went to the conference. Elvira, arrayed in all the finery her own wardrobe supplied, and crowned with Jane's wreath, went off to her expecting gallant, leaving Jane by the bedside of Phillis; and there the sweet girl kindly watched alone, till after the return of the family from the conference, till after the bell had summoned the household to the evening prayer, and till after the last lingering sound of fastening doors, windows, &c. died away.
The poor old invalid was really in the last extremity; her breathing grew shorter and more interrupted; her eyes assumed a fearful stare and glassiness. Jane's fortitude forsook her, and she ventured to call her aunt, who had but just en-
