Year: 1873

sympathy ana regret, LOOK tnelr uepafIuie'
leaving the household plunged in gloom and
grief, where all had been so gay and cheerful
a few minutes before.


Mrs. Carroll, Lucy and Edward, hung in
speechless anxiety over the PROSTATE form Of
the sufferer, who for many hours remained
unconscious, despite every effort of the skillful
physician to restore him.


doctor, is there any hope?" falteringly
asked Mrs. Carroll, who, with all her coldness
and selfish ambition, was devoted wife.


"While there is life, there is hope" said the
doctor, evasively; butt is his third stroke" !"


"Oh, father, my darling father" murmur-
ed Lucy, hiding her face on the bed. Ed
wards manly bosom heaved, for he loved his
kind uncle with sons affection, and his heart
bled, too, for the grief of his aunt and cousin,
toward whom his brief coldness and resentment
vanished away in the presence of this great
sorrow.


At length Mr. Carroll's eyes opened, and
with glance of recognition he met the tear
full, devoted gaze of the faces gathered around.
He tried to speak; but the power of speech
was gone He tried to move his right hand i;
but that effort, too, was in vain. Feebly he
moved his left, and motioned for pencil and
some paper.


"My friend, do not agitate yourself" said
the physician "you are unfit to make the
least exertion, and I must enjoin perfect quiet
and repose."


With distressed look, the sick man per-
sisted in his demand. At length, fearing to
excite him by continued opposition, the de-
sired articles we're brought him.


Slowly and painfully, with his trembling
left hand, he traced few scrawling words on
the paper; but ere he had completed SEN
tence, the pencil dropped from his nelveless,
impotent fingers.


All that could be distinguished of what he
had written were the disconnected words


"Ruin madness -forgive-too late-my
blessing repent"


They fancied that these words were but the
promptings of weak, disordered brain. In
silent anguish they wept over this proof of a
shattered mind and, in truth, he now appear
ed to lose all consciousness of his surround
ings His eyes lost their intelligence Of ex-
preston and wandered vacantly around the
apartment; his head sank back, and it soon
became evident to all that his last moments
were rapidly approaching.


The struggle was brief and comparatively
easy, and ere the clock had struck the hour
of noon, the soul of Andrew Carroll had
escaped from its tenement of clay to seek its
better home.


The griefstricken family could scarcely
realize that this sudden blow which had de.
scended upon them was not terrible dream.
That the generous, kindly-hearted man, who
few short hours BEFORE had stood in the
midst of them, in the flush of life and health,
should now be lying still and cold in his last
repose; that the cheerful voice should be
forever silenced; the grasp of the warm, firm
hand relaxed, never to be felt again that the
heart that had throbbed with warm affection,
benevolent impulses and kindly desires, should
now be senseless and pulseless-never more to
stir and bound with life-seemed too dreadful
reality fer them at once to comprehend.


In the ballroom still bloomed the fresh
bright flowers that had beauti6ed it for the
festival of the previous evening; in the supper
room there lay on the table the fragments of
the feast, which the distracted servants had
not yet thought of removing. And Lucy.
herself, in her white, flowing dress, now
crumpled and disordered, felt the horrible
mockery of the contrast between life and
death-between the brief, brilliant pageant in
which she had borne part, and the awful
mystery OF the solemn tragedy at its close


On the evening of the next day, the mortal
remains of Mr.. Carroll were consigned to their
last resting-place A large concourse of
friends attended the melancholy ceremony
for in the mercantile world, anc, indeed, in
every circle in which he had 1noved, he had
commanded the respect, esteem and admira-
ton of all, for his integrity and moral worth.


Another blow was yet to descend on the
bereaved family.


To the astonishment of every one, it was
discovered that the affairs of the deceased
were so hopelessly involved, that upon pay
ment of the claims against it, there would be
only small remnant left for the support of
his wife and child.


Mr.. Carroll had allowed himself to become
entangled in business speculations, which had
utterly failed. The knowledge of this disaster
had reached him but short time before his
death. He had devised means to extricate
himself from its consequences, which, had he
lived, would probably have proved successful;
but as it was, the ruin was almost complete.
Now they understood the meaning of those
mysterious words he had traced on his death
bed-understood the anguish Of mind and
heart that he must have felt, in that feeble
struggle, to express his sorrow for what he
had done-his prayer for their forgiveness
his assurance of his tender love-the love that
would have shielded them with its dying
breath from the evil which his own hand had
wrought.


"Ohl Lucy, what is to become of us?"
moaned Mrs. Carroll, to whom the loss of her
fortune was indeed grievous blow, and one,
which already crushed by sorrow, she found it
difficult to sustain. "What are we to do?
Where are we to go? We cannot live here in
poverty and ruin. I could never show my
face again"


"Why not, mamma ?" asked Lucy, who