The expression of her countenance seemed cold, sedate, and somewhat stern; but it might, in some measure, have belied her heart; for, when turned to the moonlight, you might see that her eyes were filled with tears, though she did not weep; and you might tell by the quivering of her lip, that a little hesitation in replying to any remark from the sufferer arose from her difficulty in commanding her emotions.
"Constance," said the invalid, after a pause, in which he seemed to have been gazing with a quiet heart on the soft skies, that, blue and eloquent with stars, he beheld through the unclosed windows:--"Constance, the hour is coming; I feel it by signs which I cannot mistake.

I shall die this night." "Oh, God!--my father!--my dear, dear father!" broke from Constance's lips; "do not speak thus--do not--I will go to Doctor -- --" "No, child, no!--I loathe--I detest the thought of help.

They denied it me while it was yet time.

They left me to starve or to rot in gaol, or to hang myself! They left me like a dog, and like a dog I will die! I would not have one iota taken from the justice--the deadly and dooming weight of my dying curse." Here violent spasms broke on the speech of the sufferer; and when, by medicine and his daughter's attentions, he had recovered, he said, in a lower and calmer key:--"Is all quiet below, Constance?
Are all in bed?
The landlady--the servants--our fellow-lodgers ?" "All, my father." "Ay; then I shall die happy.

Thank Heaven, you are my only nurse and attendant.