“I have been dreaming—I have slept upon my watch,” said Eudora, regretfully; and to prevent a recurrence of drowsiness, she bathed her forehead and temples with aromatic vinegar, and saturated her handkerchief with the same pungent liquid, and resumed her seat beside the patient.
At this moment Agatha awoke, complained of thirst, and asked for drink.
Eudora went to a side-table, poured out a glass of tamarind-water, and brought it to the invalid.
Agatha drank eagerly, and sank back upon her pillows with a sigh of satisfaction.
Eudora silently resumed her seat and her watch; but scarcely five minutes had passed, when suddenly Agatha started up, her eyes strained outward, her features livid, and her limbs convulsed.
Eudora sprang to her in alarm.
Agatha essayed to speak, but the spasms in her throat prevented utterance.
In the extremity of terror, Eudora laid her down upon the pillows, and sprang to the bell-pull, and rang loudly for assistance.
Then hurrying back to the bedside, she found Agatha livid, rigid, with locked jaws, laboring lungs, and startling eyes.
She caught her up in her arms, rubbed her temples, and rubbed her hands, exclaiming all the while: