Ill-comforted by his reflections, he returned to the quiet dwelling, and entered the chamber of his friend.

CHAPTER XXX.

The sufferer was still sleeping, and Mrs. Wayne was watching by the bedside.  Harold seated himself beside her, and gazed mournfully upon the pale, still features that already, but for the expression of pain that lingered there, seemed to have passed from the quiet of sleep to the deeper calm of death.

“Each moment that I look,” said Mrs. Wayne, wiping her tears away, “I seem to see the grey shadows of the grave stealing over his brow.  The doctor was here a few moments before you came.  The minister, too, sat with him all the morning.  I know from their kind warning that I shall soon be childless.  He has but a few hours to be with me.  Oh, my son! my son!”

She bent her head upon the pillow, and wept silently in the bitterness of her heart.  Harold forebore to check that holy grief; but when the old lady, with Christian resignation, had recovered her composure, he pressed her to seek that repose which her aged frame so much needed.

“I will sit by Arthur while you rest awhile; you have already overtasked your strength with vigil.  I will awake you should there be a change.”

She consented to lie upon the sofa, and soon wept herself to sleep, for she was really quite broken down with watching.  Everything was hushed around, save the monotones of the insects in the fields, and the breathing of those that slept.  If there is an hour when the soul is lifted above earth and communes with holy things, it is in the stillness of the country night, when the solitary watcher sits beside the pillow of a loved one, waiting the coming of the dark angel, whose footsteps are at the threshold.  Harold sat gazing silently at the face of the invalid; sometimes a feeble smile would struggle with the lines of suffering upon the pinched and haggard lineaments, and once from the white lips came the murmur of a name, so low that only the solemn stillness made the sound palpable—­the name of Oriana.

Toward midnight, Arthur’s breathing became more difficult and painful, and his features changed so rapidly that Harold became fearful that the end was come.  With a sigh, he stepped softly to the sofa, and wakened Mrs. Wayne, taking her gently by the hand which trembled in his grasp.  She knew that she was awakened to a terrible sorrow—­that she was about to bid farewell to the joy of her old age.  Arthur opened his eyes, but the weeping mother turned from them; she could not bear to meet them, for already the glassy film was veiling the azure depths whose light had been so often turned to her in tenderness.

“Give me some air, mother.  It is so close—­I cannot breathe.”

They raised him upon the pillow, and his mother supported the languid head upon her bosom.

“Arthur, my son! are you suffering, my poor boy?”