She sickened with the effort. Her
limbs grew too weak to sustain her; a sudden faintness overspread all
her faculties--her eyes closed--she gasped hysterically, and tottering
forward, she sank unconscious into the arms of Ralph, which were barely
stretched out in time to save her from falling to the floor. He bore her
to the sofa, and laid her down silently upon it.
He was struck suddenly with the truth to which he had hitherto shown
himself so blind. He would have been the blindest and most obtuse of
mortals, did he now fail to see. That last speech, that last look, and
the fearful paroxysm which followed it, had revealed the poor girl's
secret. Its discovery overwhelmed him, at once with the consciousness of
his previous and prolonged dullness--which was surely mortifying--as
with the more painful consciousness of the evil which he had unwittingly
occasioned. But the present situation of the gentle victim called for
immediate attention; and, hastily darting out to another apartment, he
summoned Mrs.
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