tableau. The shawl had dropped from the lady's head, and the candle
shone broadly upon her features, as upon the sick man's profile.
Apparently dissatisfied with this view, she slipped her disengaged
hand under the cheek which was downward, and drew his face around
into full sight.

"And bless your soul, honey!" Aunt Phillis told her young mistress,
long afterward, "you never see sech a look as was on hern--while her
eyes was thar bright and big, they was jist like live coals sot in a
lump of dough--she growed so white!"

Nevertheless the spy could return the candle to its place upon the
table without perceptible tremor of lip or limb, and after bestowing
one scrutinizing glance upon the nurse, who was fast asleep beneath
it, she went to the heap of damp clothing. These she lifted--one by
one--less gingerly than Phillis had done, and ransacked every likely
hiding-place of papers or valuables, going through the operation
with a rapid dexterity that astounded the old woman's weak mind, and
made her ashamed of her own clumsiness. Anticipating the final
stealthy look in her direction, the heavy lids fell once again, and
were not raised until the rusty bolt passed gratingly into the
socket, and she felt that the place was deserted by all save herself
and the dying stroller.

She was in no danger of dozing upon her post after this visitation.
For the few hours of darkness that yet remained, she sat in her
chair, her elbows upon her knees, smoking, and pondering upon what
she had witnessed, varying her occupations by feeding the fire and
such care of the patient as she considered advisable; likening, in
her rude, yet excitable imagination, the rumbling of the gale in the