“Dear madam, I have no mother!”

She understood me, and flinging her arms round me sobbed louder than I. It would have been wicked to offer further resistance.  She brought down pillows, covered them with a red shawl, and propped me up till the horsehair sofa became an easy couch, and with mixed tears and smiles I contrived to swallow a few mouthfuls, a feat which she exalted to an act of sublime virtue.

“And now, my dear,” she said, “you will have some warm water and wash your hands and face and smooth your hair, and go to sleep for a bit.”

“I cannot sleep,” I said.

But Mrs. Smith was not to be baffled.

“I shall give you something to make you,” said she.

And so, when the warm water had done its work, I had to swallow a sleeping-draught and be laid easily upon the sofa.  Her last words as she “tucked me up” were, oddly enough—­

“The tea’s brought back a bit of colour to your cheeks, miss, and I will say you do look pretty in them beautiful sables!”

A very different thought was working in my head as the sleeping-draught tingled through my veins.

“Will the birds sing at sunrise?”

Nelly, I slept twelve long hours without a dream.  It was four o’clock in the afternoon of Monday when I awoke, and only then, I believe, from the mesmeric influence of being gazed at.  Eleanor! there is only one such pair of eyes in all the world!  George Manners was kneeling by my side.

Abraham was still sacrificing his son upon the wall, but my Isaac was restored to me.  I sat up and flung myself into his arms.  It was long, long before either of us could speak, and, oddly enough, one of the first things he said was (twitching my cloak with the quaint curiosity of a man very ignorant about feminine belongings), “My darling, you seem sadly ill, but yet, Doralice, your sweet face does look so pretty in these great furs.”

* * * * *

My story is ended, Nelly, and my promise fulfilled.  The rest you know.  How the detective, who left London before four o’clock that morning, found the rusty knife that had been buried with the hand, and apprehended Parker, who confessed his guilt.  The wretched man said, that being out on the fatal night about some sick cattle, he had met poor Edmund by the low gate; that Edmund had begun, as usual, to taunt him; that the opportunity of revenge was too strong, and he had murdered him.  His first idea had been flight, and being unable to drag the ring from Edmund’s hand, which was swollen, he had cut it off, and thrown the body into the ditch.  On hearing of the finding of the body, and of poor George’s position, he determined to brave it out, with what almost fatal success we have seen.  He dared not then sell the ring, and so buried it in his barn.  Two things respecting his end were singular:  First, at the last he sent for Dr. Penn, imploring him to stay with him till he died.  That good man, as ever, obeyed the call of duty and kindness, but he was not fated to see the execution of my brother’s murderer.  The night before, Thomas Parker died in prison; not by his own hand, Nelly.  A fit of apoplexy, the result of intense mental excitement, forestalled the vengeance of the law.