It was the first of such watches she had ever kept, and the awful stillness made her tremble.

Often she got up from her seat to see if her mother's breathing still really went on; it seemed difficult to believe that there was any stir whatever of life in the room.

In those long hours, too, she had time to revert to the doings of the past day--to remember both Maurice's words and her mother's, and to separate, to some degree, the truth from all exaggeration.

Her mind seemed to go back also, with singular clearness, to the time of Percy's coming to Cacouna, and even earlier.

She began to comprehend the significance of trifles, which had seemed insignificant at the time, and to believe in the truth of what Maurice had told her, that even then he was building all his hopes on the possibility of her loving him.