“Very,” replied Hilary, forcing back her tears, and speaking gravely, calmly, but very sadly; “very ill indeed; but, Sybil, she is better now!”
Gwyneth still stared at Hilary. “Then why were you crying?” was her question.
“Let me go to her,” said Sybil, struggling to release herself from her sister’s clasp, which, however, now bound her the closer for her efforts to move. Sybil was quiet without a word, only glancing apprehensively at the face hanging over her, with brimming eyelids and quivering lips. Gwyneth exclaimed again impatiently,
“Speak, Hilary, or let me go;—nay, I will go to mamma.”
“No, Gwyneth, you can not,” said the elder sister, laying her forehead down on her sister’s black curls.
“Who says so?—did she? she never refuses to see us! how unkind you are, Hilary.”
“A higher hand than mine, dear Gwyneth—be quiet; you can not see mamma now, because—” and such a deep, heartfelt sob stopped her words, that Sybil saw it all in one moment, and quietly turning from them both, laid her head among the pillows, and, except for a slight convulsive shiver now and then, was still and silent.
“Why, why, where is mamma?” cried Gwyneth, fighting with the wild, incomprehensible terror which was overpowering her.
“In heaven, we trust,” said Hilary, regaining her composure in a wonderful way; she pressed one hand upon her heart, made a strong physical effort to put away her grief, and then endeavored to draw Sybil toward her, hoping that the sight of her tears would touch Gwyneth’s heart. For Gwyneth sat still now, with wide open, tearless eyes, and parted lips, and cheeks as colorless as her neck; and her breath came slowly and with difficulty, and in deep, sobbing inspirations, and yet there was no tear; it was not like childish grief, it was the stillness of despair—her face might have belonged to a woman of thirty, so old it looked at that moment.
Hilary felt helpless at first; then her whole heart was raised in prayer; words not her own came to her mind, to express her thoughts and wants, as she prayed that in all her troubles she