Mary, your words fill me with inexpressible anguish! Oh, you cannot know how blank and dreary earth will seem when you are gone! I shall have no hope, no incitement, no joy!" As she listened to this confession, which a month before would have brought the glow to her cheek and sparkle to her eye, she felt that it came too late; still a perfect joy stole into her heart.

She turned her face toward him, and gently said: "I am dying; and, feeling as I do, that few hours are allotted me, I shall not hesitate to speak freely and candidly.

Some might think me deviating from the delicacy of my sex; but, under the circumstances, I feel that I am not.

I have loved you long, and to know that my love is returned, is a source of deep and unutterable joy to me.

You were indeed wrong to suppose I ever regarded Mr.Stewart otherwise than as Florry's future husband.