Letty complied, wondering and grieving more and more over the change in her cousin.
Agnes was dressed in a plain white wrapper, which showed still more plainly her extreme thinness. Her hair, which was combed carelessly back from her face, showed many white threads; her cheeks and temples were sunken and wrinkled, and the skin seemed to hang loosely on the bones; while cheeks and lips were alike destitute of colour. She spoke in a hollow, forced tone, as though every word cost her an effort; and in her appearance, as in all she said and did, there was an indescribable expression of real heart-suffering.
The luncheon was served with great elegance upon a silver tray, with abundance of the most beautiful glass and china. The waiter brought Agnes a glass of ale, into which she dropped some medicine from a bottle which stood upon her dressing-table.
"Do you take medicine all the time?" asked Letty, when the waiter was gone.
"Yes," replied Agnes, drinking her ale: "it is all that keeps me alive."
Letty took up the bottle.
Agnes made a movement as if to prevent her; but she had already read the label.
"Black drop!" she exclaimed. "Surely, Agnes, you do not take this every day, and in such doses?"
"Two or three times a day," said Agnes. "It is a bad habit, perhaps; but there is no help for it now. I must keep up, at any price."
"But you will not keep up long, at that rate," said Letty. "You are killing yourself as fast as you can."