O mother, God and man have forgiven me, and we shall be at peace again once more." Mrs.Trevor's eyes grew too dim with weeping, to read it all, and Fanny finished it.

"Here is a little note from your father, Eric, which dropped out when we opened dear aunt's letter.

Shall I read it, too ?" "Perhaps not now, love," said Mrs.Trevor.

"Poor Eric is too tired and excited already." "Well, then, let me glance it myself, aunty," he said.

He opened it, read a line or two, and then, with a scream, fell back swooning, while it dropped out of his hands.
Terrified, they picked up the fallen paper; it told briefly, in a few heartrending words, that, after writing the letter, Mrs.Williams had been taken ill; that her life was absolutely despaired of, and that, before the letter reached England, she would, in all human probability, be dead.