Page:Ethel Churchill 2.pdf/143

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ETHEL CHURCHILL.
141

holding the wan hand, whose pulsation grew feebler every moment. Lord Norbourne stood beside, and watched his last, his most beloved child, dying before him; his last hope, his last sweet link of affection breaking.

"It cannot be!" exclaimed he, in a burst of uncontrollable emotion: "so young, so very young, to die! Tell me that your skill can save her, and take all I have in the world!"

The physician took his hand, and strove to draw him aside; but the attempt caught the eye of the sufferer; she strove to raise herself, and extend her hand to her father, but it dropped heavily on the coverlid.

"Let him stay!" said she, faintly; and, looking towards the physician, continued: "I know I am dying, but death is not yet in my heart. Can you not give me a moment's strength? any thing to dispel, for a little while, this faint sickness? A few words are all I want to say, I cannot die without saying them!"

"Let her have her own way," whispered the medical man; and, pouring a few restora-