There was a vein of strenuous earnestness only partly concealed beneath her words and manner, which the gruff old gentleman, who was as sensitive as a photographic plate, where his affections were concerned, did not fail to note.  He kissed her on both cheeks—­a fully sufficient answer to her request, and shuffled out of the room in his old slippers; which, thanks to Sophie’s filial attentions, still held together with dying faith fulness.

The rest of the day the two sisters passed together—­Cornelia working upon her sister’s wedding-dress, and Sophie guiding her by directions and suggestions.  Not since they first began to grow apart, had there been between them so great an appearance of sisterly love and cordiality.  Yet, if Cornelia allowed herself to think at all, it must have seemed, in the light of her purpose regarding Bressant, as if she was preparing a shroud rather than a wedding-garment.  Or, perhaps, as she observed the change which even so brief and light an illness had made in Sophie’s delicate face, there may have lurked, in the secret places of her mind, a darker and guiltier thought than that.  But let not our condemnation be too unconditional, lest the precedent come home, some day, to ourselves.  It may astonish us, hereafter, to discover how many of our most respectable acquaintances are murderers—­only in thought!

But Sophie’s condition seemed steadily to improve, and, by the morning of the 30th, the professor apprehended no danger but from imprudence.  That she should attend Abbie’s party was, of course, out of the question; but there was no longer any obstacle in the way of Cornelia’s availing herself of the entertainment, if she were so inclined.

Deadly and immitigable as woman’s purpose is often represented to be, it may, especially before she becomes thoroughly hardened to crime, be swayed by shades of feeling or sentiment which would appear, to a man, ridiculously trifling, and which, indeed, she could not herself explain or calculate upon; and there is the more likelihood of this, in proportion to the depth to which her emotions and affections are involved in the affair.  As to Cornelia, there are no means of determining whether she ever wavered in her designs against her sister’s happiness, and her friend’s constancy, or not; she, at any rate, decided to go to the ball, and even condescended to accept Mr. Reynolds’s tender of his escort thither.  There are a host of respectable motives always on hand for such occasions, and Cornelia might be going either from a curiosity to find out whether Bressant would return, and in order, if so, to bring her sister the latest news; or, to obtain relief from the monotony of home-life; or, to oblige Abbie, who counted upon her appearance; or, to display her ball-dress, cut after the latest New-York pattern; or, all these small matters may have been the wheels whereon rolled the invisible car, but for which they would not have existed.