"'Never mention that word again, or I swear I'll blow your brains out as I would a rabbit's!'
"And then he rushed from the house, leaving me more astonished and frightened than ever I had been before in all my born days.
"But I kept the baby, and called it 'Christina,' after a sister I had once (Carl Henley's mother, poor thing! that went and heaved herself away on a vagabones of a fellow), and kept it till it grew up. Mark Campbell died a little while after, but we never spoke another word about the child; but now I know, arter hearing about the crazy woman, she was its mother."
Aunt Tom paused for breath, and Sibyl, with a great cry, sprang forward and clasped Christie in her arms.
"My sister! my sister! my dear little sister!" she exclaimed, through her fast falling tears. "Oh, Christie! oh, Christie! to discover you are my sister when it is too late!"
With her arms round Sibyl's neck, her golden head lying on her shoulder, Christie said, in a voice, so faint that Sibyl had to stoop down very low to hear her:
"I am going, Sibyl, dear sister Sibyl! Tell Guy, my brother, and Aunt Tom, to come and bid me good-by."
In a voice choked with sobs, Sibyl called them to the bedside, to receive that parting embrace. Guy's eyes were full of tears, and Mrs. Tom's sobs resounded audibly through the room.
"And now, Sibyl, my own, my darling sister, good-by, and Heaven bless you. Hush! do not weep so;" and the little wan arms clasped Sibyl's neck in a last embrace. "Dearest Sibyl, go now and send Willard to me."
Pressing a last kiss on the transparent brow, Sibyl arose, and beckoned Willard to approach.