She felt as if she could not hear any more; yet there was more to hear.

Her father, as it turned out, was very ill, and had been so all night long; he had evidently had some kind of attack on the brain, whether apoplectic or paralytic it was for the doctors to decide.

In the hurry and anxiety of this day of misery succeeding to misery, she almost forgot to wonder whether Ralph were still at the Parsonage--still in Hamley; it was not till the evening visit of the physician that she learnt that he had been seen by Dr.Moore as he was taking his place in the morning mail to London.

Dr.Moore alluded to his name as to a thought that would cheer and comfort the fragile girl during her night- watch by her father's bedside.

But Miss Monro stole out after the doctor to warn him off the subject for the future, crying bitterly over the forlorn position of her darling as she spoke--crying as Ellinor had never yet been able to cry: though all the time, in the pride of her sex, she was as endeavouring to persuade the doctor it was entirely Ellinor's doing, and the wisest and best thing she could have done, as he was not good enough for her, only a poor barrister struggling for a livelihood.
Like many other kind-hearted people, she fell into the blunder of lowering the moral character of those whom it is their greatest wish to exalt.