"
"I have been well repaid," she answered faintly, closing her tired
lids wearily, and folding her hands; after a pause she opened them and
continued:
"When they saw how ill I was they sent for Mr. Dalton again, and he
came to see me. He told me you were on your way to visit Miss
Merivale, who was to be married in a little while, and that you were
said to be engaged to Doctor Campbell, which was puzzling news to me
at that time. He spoke sympathetically but not regretfully, I thought,
of your engagement, and I wondered more than ever what relationship
existed between Ernest Dalton and you. He praised Doctor Campbell in
the highest terms and said that you had 'made a man of him' for life.
Bayard was glad to have Mr. Dalton with us and kept him for several
weeks. He left with a promise to return soon again, I suppose he likes
to comfort Bayard while his sorrows are fresh," she added, closing her
eyes languidly and sighing faintly.
Just then Mdme. de Beaumont came in on tip-toe with some tempting
morsel for her little invalid. This broke the strain of confidence,
and as Hortense showed symptoms of exhaustion and drowsiness, after
taking her nourishment, we lowered the blinds and stole from the room.
In a few moments she was fast asleep.
CHAPTER XVIII.
By degrees Hortense succumbed to her disease. There were no happy
revivals of her old mood now; no flickering of the old vitality that
had brightened other lives besides her own.
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