Ere Juliana had finished one sentence, she resigned the pencil.  Was it not much, even at the gates of death, to be the instrument to send Rose into his arms?  The picture swayed before her, helping her weakness.  She found herself dreaming that he had kissed her once.  Dorothy, she remembered, had danced up to her one day, to relate what the maids of the house said of the gentleman—­(at whom, it is known, they look with the licence of cats toward kings); and Dorothy’s fresh careless mouth had told how one observant maid, amorously minded, proclaimed of Evan, to a companion of her sex, that, ’he was the only gentleman who gave you an idea of how he would look when he was kissing you.’  Juliana cherished that vision likewise.  Young ladies are not supposed to do so, if menial maids are; but Juliana did cherish it, and it possessed her fancy.  Bear in your recollection that she was not a healthy person.  Diseased little heroines may be made attractive, and are now popular; but strip off the cleverly woven robe which is fashioned to cover them, and you will find them in certain matters bearing a resemblance to menial maids.

While the thoughts of his kiss lasted, she could do nothing; but lay with her two hands out on the bed, and her eyelids closed.  Then waking, she took the pencil again.  It would not move:  her bloodless fingers fell from it.

’If they do not meet, and he never marries, I may claim him in the next world,’ she mused.

But conscience continued uneasy.  She turned her wrist and trailed a letter from beneath the pillow.  It was from Mrs. Shorne.  Juliana knew the contents.  She raised it unopened as high as her faltering hands permitted, and read like one whose shut eyes read syllables of fire on the darkness.

’Rose has at last definitely engaged herself to Ferdinand, you will be glad to hear, and we may now treat her as a woman.’

Having absorbed these words, Juliana’s hand found strength to write, with little difficulty, what she had to say to Rose.  She conceived it to be neither sublime nor generous:  not even good; merely her peculiar duty.  When it was done, she gave a long, low sigh of relief.

Caroline whispered, ‘Dearest child, are you awake?’

‘Yes,’ she answered.

‘Sorrowful, dear?’

’ Very quiet.’

Caroline reached her hand over to her, and felt the paper.  ’What is this?’

‘My good-bye to Rose.  I want it folded now.’

Caroline slipped from the couch to fulfil her wish.  She enclosed the pencilled scrap of paper, sealed it, and asked, ’ Is that right?’

‘Now unlock my desk,’ Juliana uttered, feebly.  ’Put it beside a letter addressed to a law-gentleman.  Post both the morning I am gone.’

Caroline promised to obey, and coming to Juliana to mark her looks, observed a faint pleased smile dying away, and had her hand gently squeezed.  Juliana’s conscience had preceded her contentedly to its last sleep; and she, beneath that round of light on the ceiling, drew on her counted breaths in peace till dawn.