He carefully depressed his arm that she might rest more easily. Mrs.
Carlton seated herself beside her brother, and whispered:
"You will not go to-morrow, Frank?"
"No, no; I will not leave her a moment. Ellen, does she seem very much thinner since leaving home? I know she is very pale."
"Yes, Frank; she is fearfully changed within the last week."
"Oh, Ellen! if she should be taken from me;" and closer he drew his arm, as though fearing some unseen danger.
"We must look to Heaven for her restoration, and God is good," answered his sister, turning away to conceal her tears.
CHAPTER XXVII.
"Ah! whence yon glare
That fires the arch of heaven?—that dark red smoke
Blotting the silver moon?…
Hark to that roar whose swift and deafening peals,
In countless echoes, through the mountains ring,
Startling pale midnight on her starry throne!
* * * * *
Loud and more loud, the discord grows,
Till pale Death shuts the scene,
And o'er the conqueror and the conquered draws
His cold and bloody shroud."