die not even _I_, good as I am; but I should expect to, if I had the
consumption."

"Lenora, have I got the consumption?" asked Carrie, fixing her eyes
with mournful earnestness upon her companion, who thoughtlessly
replied:

"To be sure you have. They say one lung is entirely gone and the other
nearly so."

Wearily the sick girl turned upon her side; and, resting her dimpled
cheek upon her hand, she said softly, "Go away now, Lenora; I want to
be alone."

Lenora complied, and when Margaret returned from the village she
found her sister lying in the same position in which Lenora had left
her, with her fair hair falling over her face, which it hid from view.

"Are you asleep, Carrie?" said Mag; but Carrie made no answer, and
there was something so still and motionless in her repose that Mag
went up to her, and pushing back from her face the long silken hair,
saw that she had fainted.

The excitement of her stepmother's visit, added to the startling news
which Lenora had told her, was too much for her weak nerves, and for a
time she remained insensible. At length, rousing herself, she looked
dreamily around, saying, "Was it a dream, Maggie--- all a dream?"

"Was what a dream, love?" said Margaret, supporting her sister's head
upon her bosom.