When her eyes opened and she found her husband beside her bed there spread over her face a glad look; which, alas! soon changed to one of pain.

She motioned to him to bend down.

He knelt and put his head beside her on the pillow; his arms went tenderly round her as though by his iron devotion and strength he would shield her from all harm.

Her voice came very low and in broken gasps; she was summoning all her strength that she might speak: 'My dear, dear husband, I am so sad at leaving you! You have made me so happy, and I love you so! Forgive me, dear, for the pain I know you will suffer when I am gone! And oh, Stephen, I know you will cherish our little one--yours and mine--when I am gone.

She will have no mother; you will have to be father and mother too.' 'I will hold her in my very heart's core, my darling, as I hold you!' He could hardly speak from emotion.