its outline--and supplied the delicacy which ends with youth by the
delicacy that comes with the approach of death. So that, in no small
degree, the beauty which had been to him so fatal a gift, was once more
visible--the features growing again distinct, as wanness succeeded to the
hues of intemperance, and emaciation to the bloated cheeks and swollen
muscle. The goddess whose boons adorn the outward shell of the human
spirit came back to her favourite's death-couch as she had come to the
cradle--not now as the Venus Erycina, goddess of Smile and Jest, but as
the warning Venus Libitina, the goddess of Doom and the Funeral.

"I'm a very poor creature," said Jasper, after a pause. "I can't rise--
I can't move without help. Very strange supernatural! She always said
that if I raised my hand against her, it would fall palsied!" He turned
his eye towards Arabella with a glare of angry terror. "She is a witch!"
he said, and buried his face in the pillow. Tears rolled down the grim
woman's cheeks.

LADY MONTFORT.--"She is rather your good ministering spirit. Do not be
unkind to her. Over her you have more power now than you had when you
were well and strong. She lives but to serve you; command her gently."

Jasper was not proof against that sweet voice. With difficulty he
wrenched himself round, and again looked long at Caroline Montfort, as if
the sight did him good; then he made a sign to Arabella, who flew to his
side and raised him.

"I have been a sad dog," he said, with a mournful attempt at the old
rollicking tone--"a very sad dog-in short, a villain! But all ladies are
indulgent to villains in fact, prefer them! Never knew a lady who could
endure 'a good young man'--never! So I am sure you will forgive me,