"Do you think you could go to sleep now?" Mellen asked.
"Perhaps so," she said; "I will try, at all events."
"The best thing for you," said Elsie. "I'll sit with you a little while, and be still as a mouse."
Elsie was never sorry to escape from sickness or unpleasant occurrences of any kind, and could be of no more use in trouble than a canary-bird or a hot-house blossom. But just now she had an object in remaining.
The moment Mellen had withdrawn, she took North's letter from its hiding-place, and thrust it into Elizabeth's hand.
"Thank heaven I've got rid of it at last," she exclaimed, shaking the flounces of her dress as if the note had left some contamination behind.
"How did you get it?" faltered Elizabeth, looking at the folded paper with strained eyes, as if it had been an asp which she held by the neck.
"Oh, Elizabeth, he was in this very room."
"Here! here! Great heavens! why will no one shoot this man?" exclaimed the tortured woman.
"I thought of it, upon my word I did," said Elsie. "But, then, I don't know how to fire off a pistol!"