Page:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (emended first edition), Volume 3.djvu/260

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
250
THE TENANT

ing the changes of his features and listening to his failing breath. He had been silent a long time, and I thought he would never speak again, when he murmured, faintly but distinctly—

"Pray for me, Helen!"

"I do pray for you—every hour and every minute, Arthur; but you must pray for yourself."

His lips moved but emitted no sound;—then his looks became unsettled; and, from the incoherent half-uttered words that escaped him from time to time, supposing him to be now unconscious, I gently disengaged my hand from his, intending to steal away for a breath of air, for I was almost ready to faint; but a convulsive movement of the fingers, and a faintly whispered "Don't leave me!" immediately recalled me: I took his hand again, and held it till he was no more—and then I fainted; it was not grief; it was exhaustion that, till then, I had been enabled successfully to combat. Oh Frederick! none can imagine the