CHAPTER XI.
THE CHAMBER AT THE COTTAGE.
Meanwhile Faber was making a round, with the village of Owlkirk for the end of it.

Ere he was half-way thither, his groom was tearing after him upon Niger, with a message from Mrs.Puckridge, which, however, did not overtake him.

He opened the cottage-door, and walked up stairs, expecting to find his patient weak, but in the fairest of ways to recover speedily.

What was his horror to see her landlady weeping and wringing her hands over the bed, and find the lady lying motionless, with bloodless lips and distended nostrils--to all appearance dead! Pillows, sheets, blankets, looked one mass of red.

The bandage had shifted while she slept, and all night her blood had softly flowed.