to proceed; for all is hush and still; the family retired; but not one
of them, and least of all her poor cousin, I dare say, to rest.

At four o'clock, as I mentioned in my last, I was sent for down; and,
as thou usedst to like my descriptions, I will give thee the woeful scene
that presented itself to me, as I approached the bed.

The Colonel was the first that took my attention, kneeling on the side of
the bed, the lady's right hand in both his, which his face covered,
bathing it with his tears; although she had been comforting him, as the
women since told me, in elevated strains, but broken accents.

On the other side of the bed sat the good widow; her face overwhelmed
with tears, leaning her head against the bed's head in a most
disconsolate manner; and turning her face to me, as soon as she saw me,
O Mr. Belford, cried she, with folded hands--the dear lady--A heavy sob
permitted her not to say more.

Mrs. Smith, with clasped fingers, and uplifted eyes, as if imploring help
from the only Power which could give it, was kneeling down at the bed's
feet, tears in large drops trickling down her cheeks.

Her nurse was kneeling between the widow and Mrs. Smith, her arms
extended. In one hand she held an ineffectual cordial, which she had
just been offering to her dying mistress; her face was swoln with weeping
(though used to such scenes as this); and she turned her eyes towards me,
as if she called upon me by them to join in the helpless sorrow; a fresh
stream bursting from them as I approached the bed.

The maid of the house with her face upon her folded arms, as she stood