“I did not expect, when I walked out, that it would be so long before I returned, Mary,” he replied, kissing her cheek affectionately.  “But I met with an old, though long estranged friend, who seeing that I had been ill, and needed fresh air, insisted on taking me out into the country in his carriage.  I could but consent.  I was, however, so weak, as to be obliged to go to bed, when about three miles from the city, and lie there for a couple of hours.  But I feel well, very well now; and have some good news to tell you.  But where is Anna?”

“She has just come in, and gone up to her chamber.  I do not think her at all well to-night,” Mary said.

“Poor girl!  She is sacrificing herself for the good of others,” Alfred remarked, with tenderness and interest.

“Shall I call her down?” Mary asked.

“O, yes,—­by all means.”

Mary went up and found her sister lying across the bed, with her face buried in a pillow.

“Anna!  Anna!” she said, taking hold of her and shaking her gently.

Anna immediately arose, and looking wildly around her, muttered something that her sister could not comprehend.

“Anna, brother’s come home.”

But she did not seem to comprehend her meaning.

The glaring brightness of Anna’s eyes, and her flushed cheeks, convinced Mary that all was not right.  Stepping to the head of the stairs, she called to Alfred, who instantly came up.

“Here is Alfred, Anna,” she said, as she re-entered the chamber, accompanied by her brother.

For a moment or two, Anna looked upon him with a vacant stare, and then closing her eyes, sunk back upon the bed, murmuring

“It is all over—­all over.”

“What is all over, Anna?” her sister asked.

“What is all over?” the sick girl responded, in a sharp, quick tone, rising suddenly, and staring at Mary with a fixed look.  “Why, it’s all over with him!  Havn’t I drained my heart’s blood for him?  Havn’t I stood all day at the counter for his sake, when I felt that I was dying?  But it’s all over now!  He is lost, and I shall soon be out of this troublesome world!”

And then the poor half-conscious girl, covered her face with her hands and sobbed aloud.

“Don’t do so, dear sister!” Alfred said, pressing up to the bedside, and drawing his arm around her.  “Don’t give way so!  You won’t have to stand at the counter any longer.  I am Alfred—­your brother—­your long lost, but restored brother, who will care for you and work for you as you have so long cared for and worked for him.  Take courage, dear sister!  There are better and happier days for you.  Do not give up now, at the very moment when relief is at hand.”

Anna looked her brother in the face for a few moments, steadily, as her bewildered senses gradually returned, and she began to comprehend truly what he said, and that it was indeed her brother who stood thus before her, and thus appealed to her with affectionate earnestness.