“Why, the accounts lately have spoken of his being better;
he has seemed to rally a little since the death of his child, but those sort of partial revivals are not uncommon in pulmonary complaints, and I can not imagine that, ill as he has been, he has any real chance of recovery.”
“I thought,” observed Hilary, “that it was doubtful whether his was a pulmonary attack.”
“I believe one or two physicians pretended to doubt it,” replied Isabel, a little impatiently; “but the most eminent declared it hopeless, and no one could see him, I should suppose, and question his having every appearance of a victim to consumption.”
“Can I not see Gwyneth?” continued Isabel, after a pause.
“I will try to find her if you will excuse me for a few minutes.”
Hilary had no little difficulty in persuading her sister to appear; she made some excuses about business and unfitness of dress, but finally yielded, with the air of one who resigns herself to walking to the stake. Her heart revolted from meeting her successful rival, and when she remembered the visits of former days, when her company had been assiduously sought as a screen and an excuse for other interviews, when she had been made so unconsciously to administer to her rival’s objects, and her own disappointment, it did require no small share of resolute fortitude to go through the ordeal before her.
It was borne, however, as many other trials had been borne, by putting away thought and feeling, by avoiding to scan her own sensations, and simply taking pains to do the present duty rightly; as a traveler among precipices, on a narrow path, refuses to look down into the unguarded gulf below him, and keeps his faculties steady, by engaging every one in the task of setting the next footstep safely.
The next day, as Hilary was busily engrossed in writing, she thought she heard a step behind her, and looking round, saw, to her surprise, Dora Barham standing there alone.
Apparently she had just ridden over from the Abbey, but her hat was thrown off, and her long hair was hanging somewhat disordered down her pale cheeks, while she stood, with