The morning twilight was streaming through the closed shutters ere the
conference ended; and then Mr. Hamilton, kissing his daughter,
dismissed her from the room, but as she was leaving him he called her
back, saying:

"Don't tell Walter; he would despise me; but he shan't be wronged--no,
he shan't be wronged."

Six weeks from that night Margaret stood, with her brother, watching
her father as the light from his eyes went out, and the tones of his
voice ceased forever. Grief for the loss of his children, and remorse
for the blight which he had brought upon his household, had undermined
his constitution, never strong; and when a prevailing fever settled
upon him it found an easy prey. In ten days' time Margaret and Walter
alone were left of the happy band who, two years before, had gathered
around the fireside of the old homestead.

Loudly Mrs. Hamilton deplored her loss, shutting herself up in her
room, and refusing to see any one, saying that she could not be
comforted, and it was of no use trying! Lenora, however, managed to
find an opportunity of whispering to her that it would hardly be
advisable to commit suicide, since she had got the homestead left, and
everything else for which she had married Mr. Hamilton.

"Lenora, how can you thus trifle with my feelings? Don't you see that
my trouble is killing me?" said the greatly distressed lady.

"I don't apprehend any such catastrophe as that," answered Lenora.
"You found the weeds of Widow Carter easy enough to wear, and those of