“Nora, darling, how do you feel?  Speak to me, my pet!”

“Stoop down to me, Hannah! low, lower still, I want to whisper to you.”

Hannah put her ear to Nora’s lips.

“Oh, Hannah, it was all true! he was married to another woman.”  And as she gasped out these words with a great sob, her face became convulsed again with agony, and she covered it with her hands.

“Do not take this so much to heart, sweet sister.  Heaven knows that you were innocent, and the earth shall know it, too; as for him, he was a villain and a hypocrite not worth a tear,” whispered Hannah.

“Oh, no, no, no!  I am sure he was not to blame.  I cannot tell you why, because I know so little; but I feel that he was faultless,” murmured Nora, as the spasm passed off, leaving her in that elysium of physical ease which succeeds great pain.

Hannah was intensely disgusted by Nora’s misplaced confidence; but she did not contradict her, for she wished to soothe, not to excite the sufferer.

For a few minutes Nora lay with her eyes closed and her hands crossed upon her bosom, while her watchers stood in silence beside her bed.  Then springing up with wildly flaring eyes she seized her sister, crying out: 

“Hannah!  Oh, Hannah!”

“What is it, child?” exclaimed Hannah, in affright.

“I do believe I’m dying—­and, oh!  I hope I am.”

“Oh, no, ye aint a-dying, nyther; there’s more life than death in this ’ere; Lord forgive ye, girl, fer bringing such a grief upon your good sister,” said Mrs. Jones grimly.

“Oh, Mrs. Jones, what is the matter with her?  Has she taken poison, do you think?  She has been in a great deal of trouble to-night!” cried Hannah, in dismay.

“No, it’s worse than pi’sen.  Hannah, you send that ere gaping and staring nigger right away directly; this aint no place, no longer, for no men-folks to be in, even s’posin they is nothin’ but nigger cre-turs.”.

Hannah raised her eyes to the speaker.  A look of intelligence passed between the two women.  The old dame nodded her head knowingly, and then Hannah gently laid Nora back upon her pillow, for she seemed at ease again now, and went to the old man and said: 

“Uncle Jovial, you had better go home now.  Aunt Dinah will be anxious about you, you know.”

“Yes, honey, I knows it, and I was only awaitin’ to see if I could be of any more use,” replied the old man, meekly rising to obey.

“I thank you very much, dear old Uncle Jovial, for all your goodness to us to-night, and I will knit you a pair of nice warm socks to prove it.”

“Laws, child, I don’t want nothing of no thanks, nor no socks for a-doin’ of a Christian man’s duty.  And now, Miss Hannah, don’t you be cast down about this here misfortin’; it’s nothin’ of no fault of yours; everybody ’spects you for a well-conducted young ‘oman; an’ you is no ways ’countable for your sister’s mishaps.  Why, there was my own