She heard the sound of merry parties setting out on excursions, on horseback or in carriages; and once, stiff and wearied, she stole to the window, and looked out on one side of the blind; but the day looked bright and discordant to her aching, anxious heart.

The gloom of the darkened room was better and more befitting.
It was some hours after he was summoned before the doctor made his appearance.

He questioned his patient, and, receiving no coherent answers, he asked Ruth concerning the symptoms; but when she questioned him in turn he only shook his head and looked grave.

He made a sign to Mrs Morgan to follow him out of the room, and they went down to her parlour, leaving Ruth in a depth of despair, lower than she could have thought it possible there remained for her to experience, an hour before.
"I am afraid this is a bad case," said Mr Jones to Mrs Morgan in Welsh.

"A brain-fever has evidently set in." "Poor young gentleman! poor young man! He looked the very picture of health!" "That very appearance of robustness will, in all probability, make his disorder more violent.