said:

"Oh, Robbie, Robbie! my darling, if you could know with what shame, and
anguish, and remorse I am kneeling before you, you would pity and
perhaps forgive me when I have told you what I must tell you now. But
don't touch me--don't put your hands upon me, for that would quite
unnerve me," she continued, as she saw the thin hands groping to find
her. "Sit quite still and listen, and then, if you do not loathe me with
a loathing unutterable, call me sister once more, and that will be
enough."

The old cathedral clock was striking twelve when that interview ended,
and when it struck the hour of midnight again Robin Grey lay dead in the
room which looked toward the sea, and the soft south wind, sweet with
the perfume of roses and orange blossoms, kissed his white face and
stirred the thick curls of golden hair clustering about his brow. As is
often the case with consumptives, his death had been sudden at the last,
so sudden that Lucy scarcely realized that he was dying, until she held
him dead upon her bosom. But so long as life lasted he kept repeating
her name in accents of unutterable tenderness and love.

"Lucy, Lucy, my precious sister, God bless you for all you have been to
me, and comfort you when I am gone, darling, darling Lucy, I love you so
much; Lucy, Lucy, Lucy where are you? You must not leave me. Give me
your hand till I reach the river-bank where the angels are waiting for
me, I can see them and the beautiful city over the dark river, though I
can't see you; but I shall in heaven, and I am almost there. Good-by,
good-by, Lucy."

It almost seemed as if, he were calling to her from the other world, for