beautiful, with the pale beauty of the dead between them. But she, who
had first entered, was proud and stately; and the other, a soft and
fragile thing.

"Away!" cried the lofty one. "Thou hadst him living! The dead is
mine!"

"Thine!" returned the other, shuddering. "Well hast thou spoken!
The dead is thine!"

The proud girl started, and stared into her face, with a ghastly look.
But a wild and mournful expression passed across the features of the
gentle one; and, weak and helpless, she sank down on the bed, her head
pillowed beside that of the corpse, and her hair mingling with his
dark locks. A creature of hope and joy, the first draught of sorrow
had bewildered her.

"Edith!" cried her rival.

Edith groaned, as with a sudden compression of the heart; and removing
her cheek from the dead youth's pillow, she stood upright, fearfully
encountering the eyes of the lofty girl.

"Wilt thou betray me?" said the latter, calmly.

"Till the dead bid me speak, I will be silent," answered Edith. "Leave
us alone together! Go, and live many years, and then return, and tell
me of thy life. He, too, will be here! Then, if thou tellest of
sufferings more than death, we will both forgive thee."