'I have been mad!' she cried.
'Carmel, Carmel, what have I done to you, my more than sister--my child, my child!' "I tried to soothe her--to keep down my awful fear and soothe her.

But the nearness of death had calmed her poor heart into its old love and habitual thoughtfulness.

She was terrified at my position.

She recalled our mother, and the oath she had taken at that mother's death-bed to protect me and care for me and my brother.

'And I have failed to do either,' she cried.