"They were stanch and good friends to you, Tony. I 'm sorry you 've given them up," said she, sorrowfully.
"What if it was _they_ that gave me up? I mean, what if I found the conditions upon which I went there were such as I could not stoop to? Don't ask me any more about it; I have never let a word about it escape my lips, and I am ashamed now to hear myself talk of it."
"That's true; so you are my dear, dear sister," said he, and he stooped and kissed her forehead; "and you shall hear it all, and how it happened."
Tony began his narrative of that passage with Mark Lyle with which our reader is already acquainted, little noticing that to the deep scarlet that at first suffused Dolly's cheeks, a leaden pallor had succeeded, and that she lay with half-closed eyes, in utter unconsciousness of what he was saying.
"This, of course," said Tony, as his story flowed on,--"this, of course, was more than I could bear, so I hurried home, not quite clear what was best to be done. I had n't _you_, Dolly, to consult, you know;" he looked down as he said this, and saw that a great tear lay on her cheek, and that she seemed fainting. "Dolly, my dear,--my own dear Dolly," whispered he, "are you ill,--are you faint?"
"Lay my head back against the wall," sighed she, in a weak voice; "it's passing off."
"It was this great fire, I suppose," said Tony, as he knelt down beside her, and bathed her temples with some cold water that stood near. "Coming out of the cold air, a fire will do that."
"Yes," said she, trying to smile, "it was that."
"I thought so," said he, rather proud of his acuteness. "Let me settle you comfortably here;" and he lifted her up in his strong arms, and placed her in the chair where he had been sitting. "Dear me, Dolly, how light you are!"
She shook her head, but gave a smile, at the same time, of mingled melancholy and sweetness.
"I 'd never have believed you could be so light; but you 'll see what home and native air will do," added he, quickly, and ashamed of his own want of tact. "My little mother, too, is such a nurse, I 'll be sworn that before a month's over you 'll be skipping over the rocks, or helping me to launch the coble, like long ago,--won't you, Dolly?"
"Go on with what you were telling me," said she, faintly.