"Edith, have some of this?"
She smiled, shaking her head.
"But you must. I insist. You need it. Don't you agree with me, doctor, that it is just what she requires?"
He spoke in a rising key, with a rapid accent. Edith reached forth her hand, and took the little dish of orange ice. It shook like a lily in the wind; but she said, softly and with apparent calmness,—
"Anything to please you, brother. I will choose this every day if you think it good for me."
He gave her a satisfied look. Then there was a brief silence, which their guest was about to dissipate with a playful remark, when St. Victor turned abruptly to the steward,—
"Thompson," he cried, "now bring in the skeleton!"
"What, sir?" stammered the astonished servant.
"Bring in the skeleton, I said. Do you not know that the Egyptians always crown their feasts with a death's head? Bring it in, I say, and place it—there!"
Half-rising in his seat, he pointed to the vacant space behind his sister's chair.