The very thought was agony; but he dared not ask to have it otherwise.
He had given up all hope that she would be spared to him, but pleaded earnestly that one lucid interval might be granted her, in which he could tell her of his deep sorrow on account of his severity toward her, and ask her forgiveness.
He did not go down to breakfast, but Adelaide again brought him some refreshment, and at length he yielded to her entreaties that he would try to eat a little.
She set down the salver, and turned away to hide the tears she could not keep back.

Her heart ached for him.

She had never seen such a change in a few hours as had passed over him.

He seemed to have grown ten years older in that one night--he was so pale and haggard--his eyes so sunken in his head, and there were deep, hard lines of suffering on his brow and around his mouth.
His meal was soon concluded.
"Adelaide, how is she ?" he asked in a voice which he vainly endeavored to make calm and steady.
"Much the same; there seems to be very little change," replied his sister, wiping away her tears.

Then drawing Elsie's little Bible from her pocket, she put it into his hand, saying, "I thought it might help to comfort you, my poor brother;" and with a fresh burst of tears she hastily left the room and hurried to her own, to spend a few moments in pleading for him that this heavy affliction might be made the means of leading him to Christ.
And he--ah! he could not at first trust himself even to look at the little volume that had been so constantly in his darling's hands, that it seemed almost a part of herself.
He held it in a close, loving grasp, while his averted eyes were dim with unshed tears; but at length, passing his hand over them to clear away the blinding mist, he opened the little book and turned over its pages with trembling fingers, and a heart swelling with emotion.
There were many texts marked with her pencil, and many pages blistered with her tears.