from my hand, and that I could be of service to him. Is it not strange, Guydear Guy that I should have found a kind friend in him who, if I remember right, would have been one of the most violent opponents of our marriage?

And she leant her cheek thoughtfully against his breast.

'Don't talk of that, darling,' he returned, 'let our marriage date from this blessed meeting. Here-see I have kept your ring next my heart; let me place it on your finger once more, never-never again to be moved.'

And Marie, returning his fond embrace, murmured,

'Never! Never!'

*

This long talk had been interrupted by frequent visits to the sufferer, whose increasing restlessness filled them with anxiety, and Neville and Marie mounted guard by turns at his bedside throughout the night, and with the first dawn. of day, the physician was again summoned.

A week of constant watching and peril ensued. Neville Watson was delirious— and raved of the terrors of hell, of some dark crime he was doomed to expiate by unheard-of tortures of heavenly joys, from which he was for ever shut out. Yet, amid all his mental and bodily agony, he seemed to receive some vague, dim comfort from Marie's presence, from the touch of her cool, soft hand.

But all this by degrees subsided, and the loving care of his watchful attendants, the skill of the great doctor, as Marie called him, were rewarded, and Neville Watson, much emaciated, gaunt, and grim to look at, nevertheless clothed and in his right mind, was removed to his own house, whither Mr. and Mrs. Guy Neville accompanied him; for though he had apparently passed from the excitement of fever to a state of deep depression, and preserved an almost unbroken silence, he once spake with his lips, as he saw preparations making for his departure, and feebly holding out his hand to Guy and Marie, said,

'Don't leave me-come with meboth.'

VOL. II.

P

So, behold the brothers, after having been swept so far apart by the capricious tide of circumstances, domiciled under the same roof, and forming, with Marie, emphatically a family.

CHAPTER XIV.

ALL that we have detailed above ought, of course, to have been broken by anxious visits of inquiry from Mr. Foster, and letters from Sir Frederic, who, notwithstanding his friendship and anxiety, preferred remaining in Paris.

Miss Delvigne also wrote rapturously, and besieged her guardian with entreaties to be brought back that she might rejoice. with her friend. To this Mr. Foster not unwillingly agreed, and as soon as a proper escort could be found, the young heiress returned to London, and took up