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A DREADFUL TEMPTATION. © ag ye
CHAPTER XIV.
words. oe
7 “Oh, mamma!” she gasped, in terror-stricken accents,
_ "whatis it? My sister—is she worse? Is she——”
“Manos sprang to her feet, broad awake at those fearful . - ety,
She thought cf death, but she paused, and could not bring Ae
her lips to frame ‘that terrible word, and stood waiting »
xpeechlessly, with parted lips and. frightened, dark eyes,
for her mother to speak. Nope ey ies.
But Mrs. Carroll, as if that one anguished ‘sentence had |
exhausted all her powers fell forward across the bed, her
face growing purple, her lips apart in a frantic struggle for
breath. . ve
~ Xenie hurriedly caught up a pitcher of water standing ,
near at hand, and dashed it into her convulsed face, with
. the quick result of seeing her s niver, gasp, and spring up ~> ey
again, .
“Mamma, speak!” she cried, shaking’her wildly by the. oe
arm; ‘‘ what has happened to you? What has happened to ~
_. Lora?”
_ Mrs. Carroll's eyes, full of a dumb, agonizing terror, |
turned upon Xenie’s wild, white face. CP
~ She tried to speak, but the words died chokingly in her.”
throat, and she lifted her hand and pointed toward the |
door.
Instantly Xenie turned, and rushed from the room. | |
Ags she crossed the narrow hallway a breath of the fresh,
‘chilly morning air blew across her face. ‘The. door that
Mrs; Carroll had securely locked the night ‘before was
- standing wide open, and the wind from the ‘sea was blow- Es
~~ ing coolly in. aa ey SS
. zd : ,
With a terrible foreboding of, some impending calamity, —
“Xenie sprang through the open doorway of Lora’s room,
and ran ‘to the bed.
Oh! horrors, the bed.was empty! ee
The beautiful young mother and the little babe, the day-
| ‘gtar of Xenie’s bright hopes, were one!
Cd &
Yenie looked around her wildly,. but the pretty little
chamber was silent and tenantless. ~ Rd he
With acry of fear and dread commingled, she rushed to-.
- wardthe door, and encountered her mother creeping slowly
in, like a. pallid ghost, in the chilly, glimmering dawn of. .
thenew day... ; pegs o
_ Oh,.mamma, where 1s Lora?” she eried, in'a faint voice, |
“while her limbs seemed to totter’beneath her. |
‘Mrs. Carroll shook her, head, and put her hands to her. -
throat, while her pallid feautres seamed to work with con-)
vulsive emotion. ‘The: terrible shock she had sustained
- geemed to have stricken her dumb. 0. oly