went up to the sufferer, gave him her mother's message, and asked him how
he was and why he was left alone. He could only give incoherent answers
which he gasped out with great difficulty, bidding her go close to him
for he could not hear her distinctly. He was very ill, he told her--
dying. It was good of her to have come for she had always been his pet,
his dear, good little girl.

"And it was a happy impulse that brought you," he added, "to receive an
old man's blessing. I give it you with my whole heart."

As he spoke he put forth his hand and she, following an instinctive
prompting, fell on her knees by the side of the couch.

He laid his burning right hand on her head and murmured some words of
blessing; she, however, scarcely heeded them, for his hand felt like lead
and its heat oppressed and distressed her dreadfully. It was a sincere
grief to her to see this true old friend of her childhood suffering thus
--perhaps indeed dying; at the same time she did not forget what had
brought her here--still, she dared not disturb him in this act of
love. He gave her his blessing--that was kind; but his mutterings did
not come to an end, the weight of the hot hand on her head grew heavier
and heavier, and at last became intolerable. She felt quite dazed, but
with an effort she collected her senses and then perceived that the old
man had wandered off from the usual formulas of blessing and was
murmuring disconnected and inarticulate words.

At this she raised the terrible, fevered hand, laid it on the bed, and
was about to ask him whether he had betrayed her to Benjamin, and if he
had mentioned her name, when--Merciful God! there on his cheeks were the
same livid spots that she had noticed on those of the plague stricken man