[CHAPTER XIV.]
Xenie sprang to her feet, broad awake at those fearful words.
"Oh, mamma!" she gasped, in terror-stricken accents, "what is it? My sister—is she worse? Is she——"
She thought of death, but she paused, and could not bring her lips to frame that terrible word, and stood waiting speechlessly, with parted lips and frightened, dark eyes, for her mother to speak.
But Mrs. Carroll, as if that one anguished sentence had exhausted all her powers, fell forward across the bed, her face growing purple, her lips apart in a frantic struggle for breath.
Xenie hurriedly caught up a pitcher of water standing near at hand, and dashed it into her convulsed face, with the quick result of seeing her shiver, gasp, and spring up again.
"Mamma, speak!" she cried, shaking her wildly by the arm; "what has happened to you? What has happened to Lora?"
Mrs. Carroll's eyes, full of a dumb, agonizing terror, turned upon Xenie's wild, white face.
She tried to speak, but the words died chokingly in her throat, and she lifted her hand and pointed toward the door.
Instantly Xenie turned, and rushed from the room.