mocks my agonies--laughs at my cries--and tells me that he has a fair
wife and plenty of gold, in spite of my malice. How did he get it? Did
he rob me?"

Elinor shrunk back aghast from this wild burst of delirium; and the
miser, rising from his knees, began re-ascending the stairs. This task
he performed with difficulty, and often reeled forward with extreme pain
and weakness. After traversing several empty chambers, he entered what
had once been the state apartment, and stooping down, he drew from
beneath the faded furniture of the bed a strong mahogany brass-bound
chest, which he cautiously opened, and displayed to his wondering
companion a richer store of wealth than that on which she had so lately
gazed.

"How! not satisfied yet!" he cried in the same harsh tones, "then may I
perish to all eternity if I give you one fraction more."

As he was about to close the chest, Elinor, who knew that without a
necessary supply of money both her unborn infant and its avaricious
father would perish for want, slid her hand into the box, and dextrously
abstracted some of the broad gold pieces it contained. The coins, in
coming in contact with each other, emitted a slight ringing sound, which
arrested, trifling as it was, the ear of the sleeper.

"What! fingering the gold already?" he exclaimed, hastily slapping down
the lid of the strong box. "Could you not wait till I am dead?"

Then staggering back to his apartment, he was soon awake, and raving
under a fresh paroxysm of the fever. In his delirium he fancied himself
confined to the dreary gulf of eternal woe, and from this place of