96 EGLANTINE OR

 

than is usual, he began to fear that she had lost her
sight for ever.

Thus in a few weeks, nay, almost in a few days,
poor Eglantine had lost her fortune and her beauty,
and now she was in great danger of losing her sight.
How true it is that this world’s goods are ever held
without anything like security! One day might
deprive us of them for ever. All our care should be
to acquire, first solid virtue, and then the cultivation
of the talents God has given us. All else is but a
mere shadow.

Doralice remained three days and three nights by
the bedside of her daughter, and would not be per-
suaded to confide her charge to any one until the
fourth day, when the doctor found that the crisis had
passed favourably, and pronounced Eglantine out of
danger. During that day she opened her eyes and
recognised the loving face of the most tender of
mothers.

‘Thank God,’ she exclaimed, ‘I see once more my
idolized mother.’

Tears checked her utterance, and she could not
express the passionate transports of her gratitude but
by her weeping. The doctor told her that it was her
mother’s untiring care that alone preserved her life.