The day happening to be one of unusual activity in business, Anna was kept so constantly busy, that she could not find a moment in which to relieve the fatigue she felt by even leaning on the counter.  Customer after customer came and went, and box after box was taken from, and replaced again upon the shelves, in what seemed to her an endless round.  Sometimes her head ached so violently, that it was with difficulty she could see to attend correctly to her business.  And sometimes she was compelled to steady herself by holding to the counter to prevent sinking to the floor, from a feeling of faintness, suddenly passing over her.  Thus she held bravely on, under the feeble hope that her indisposition, as she tried mentally to term it, would wear off.

It was about four o’clock in the afternoon that the fever which had been very high all through the day, began to subside.  This symptom she noticed with an emotion of pleasure, as indicating a healthy reaction in her system.

It was but half an hour after, that she sunk, fainting, to the floor, at her place beside the counter.  When the fever abated, exhausted nature gave way.

For nearly an hour she remained insensible.  And it was nearly two hours before she had so far recovered as to be able to walk, when she was suffered to go away unattended.  It was seven o’clock, when, with a face almost as white as ashes, and nearly sinking to the ground with weakness, she arrived at home, and opening the door, slowly entered.

“O, Anna!  What ails you?” exclaimed her mother.

“I feel very sick,” the poor girl replied, sinking into a chair.  “But where is Alfred?” she asked, in a quicker tone, in which was a strong expression of anxiety, as she glanced her eye about the room, in a vain search for him.

“He has walked out,” Mary said.

“Has he!” ejaculated Anna.  “How long has he been away?”

“It is now nearly four hours,’” Mary said, endeavouring to conceal the distress she felt, in pity for her sister, who was evidently quite ill.

“Four hours!” exclaimed Anna, her face blanching to still whiter hue.  “Four hours!  And do you not know where he is?”

“Indeed we do not, Anna.  He went out to take a short walk, and said he would not be gone more than ten or twenty minutes.”

Anna did not reply, but turned slowly away, and entering her chamber, threw herself exhausted upon her bed, feeling so utterly wretched, that she breathed an audible wish that she might die.  In about ten minutes a carriage stopped at the door; and in a moment after, amid the rattling of departing wheels, Alfred entered, looking better and happier than he had looked for a long, long time.  A single glance told the mother and sister that all was right.

“O, brother!  How could you stay away so long?” Mary said, springing to his side, and grasping tightly his arm.