of you. If you could see him now—so changed, so pale—you would pity him."
"Pity him!" exclaimed Ethel, no longer able to suppress her tears.
"You will come, then?" asked the actress.
"Yes, the instant I have spoken to my grandmother;" and, ringing the bell, desired that her chair might be sent round immediately.
"It is a long way off," said Lavinia, "and I must hurry away. I always dread what may have happened during my absence."
"Is he so very ill?" interrupted Ethel.
"Lady, he is dying," replied the other. Then, laying the address, with written directions, on the table, she hurried away, leaving her young mistress in a state of the most painful agitation.
Ethel could scarcely believe, after the actress had left her, but what she had been in a dream. "Good heavens!" exclaimed she, "what a precious thing love is! what a gift of all hope, all happiness, into the power of another!—and
