Stella blushed, and hung her head; now, in the daylight, it did seem silly, but, last night!—she shuddered, and Anna hastened to add reassuringly—
"But there, he'll never do it again, I can promise you! Such a state he's been in, poor boy; and I never saw the doctor so angry with one of his children before. It'll be long before he'll forgive the boy!"
Anna brushed out Stella's beautiful hair, and watched the little troubled face reflected in the glass in front of her. She saw the sensitive lips quiver, and the dark eyes fill with tears.
"I am sorry uncle is so angry with George," Stella said gently. "I am sure he did not mean to frighten me—at least so much."
"You're a kind-hearted little soul," Anna answered, as she bent down and kissed the child's pale face. "Now run into the next room to your aunt; she wants you, I daresay, and will be glad to see you're well enough to be up."
Stella obeyed, and found George seated by his mother's side. He was in the midst of reading the fifty-first psalm aloud—
"Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin."
"For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me."
At this point he looked up, and saw his cousin standing hesitatingly on the threshold of the room. His face, which was already swollen and red with weeping, grew redder still. He had meant to ask her forgiveness, but when he saw her pale cheeks and the tell-tale dark rims of suffering around her eyes, words failed him.
"Oh, Stella!" he gasped, and then paused in confusion.