For the first time in her life she shrank from the thought of suffering alone, and felt the need of a human presence.

“Edna, let me call mamma.  I saw this afternoon that you were not well.”

“No, it may pass off; and I want nobody about me but you.”

Only a narrow passage divided her room from his; and leaving the door open, she sat down before her desk to answer Mr. Hammond’s appeal.

As the night wore on, the wind became a gale; the fitful, bluish glare of the lightning showed fearful ranks of ravenous waves scowling over each others’ shoulders; a roar as of universal thunder shook the shore, and in the coral-columned cathedral of the great deep, wrathful ocean played a wild and weird fugue.

Felix waited patiently, listening amid the dead diapason of wind and wave, for the voice of his governess.  But no sound came from the opposite room; and at last, alarmed by the omnious silence, he took up his crutches and crossed the passage.

The muslin curtains, blown from their ribbon fastenings, streamed like signals of distress on the breath of the tempest, and the lamplight flickered and leaped to the top of its glass chimney.

On the desk lay two letters addressed respectively to Mr. Hammond and Mrs. Murray, and beside them were scattered half a dozen notes from unknown correspondents, asking for the autograph and photograph of the young author.

Edna knelt on the floor, hiding her face in the arms which were crossed on the lid of the desk.

The cripple came close to her and hesitated a moment, then touched her lightly: 

“Edna, are you ill, or are you only praying?”

She lifted her head instantly, and the blanched, weary face reminded the boy of a picture of Gethsemane, which, having once seen, he could never recall without a shudder.

“Forgive me, Felix!  I forgot that you were waiting—­forgot that I asked you to sit up.”

She rose, took the thin little form in her arms, and whispered: 

“I am sorry I kept you up so long.  The pain has passed away.  I think the danger is over now.  Go back to your room, and go to sleep as soon as possible.  Good-night, my darling.”

They kissed each other and separated; but the fury of the tempest forbade all idea of sleep, and thinking of the “Fisher Folk” exposed to its wrath, governess and pupil committed them to Him who calmed the Galilean gale.

  “The sea was all a boiling, seething froth,
   And God Almighty’s guns were going off,
   And the land trembled.”

CHAPTER XXXI.

The Greek myth concerning Demophoon embodies a valuable truth, which the literary career of Edna Earl was destined to exemplify.  Harsh critics, like disguised Ceres, plunged the young author into the flames; and fortunately for her, as no short-sighted, loving Metanira snatched her from the fiery ordeal, she ultimately obtained the boon of immortality.  Her regular contributions to the magazine enhanced her reputation, and broadened the sphere of her influence.