THE INDOLENT CORRECTED. 97

‘Oh my mother!’ said Eglantine, ‘how precious
that life is now to me! How sad it would be to lose
it before I had ever proved to you my love and grati-
tude! I wish to live from this forward only to make
you happy.’

Eglantine would have said much more, but the
doctor forbade her, fearing that the exertion of speak-
ing might bring on a return of the fever.

From that day the disease abated, but it had made
a terrible ravage on poor Eglantine’s once handsome
face. Her fine long hair fell out; and no one seeing
"her three weeks before could now have recognised her
as the same person. Knowing how much she must
have changed, Eglantine never asked to see her face
in the mirror ; however, the first day she was out of
bed, as her mother was conducting her to an easy-
chair in the next room, they had to pass a large look-
ing-glass, and Eglantine on perceiving herself could
not help trembling, and said— Is that really the hand-
some face and figure which were once so much
admired 2’

‘Your regrets, now, my child, will be great indeed
if you have had the folly to attach great value to and
take any pride out of a beauty so soon gone. An in-
stant may rob us of it, but a few years are sure to do it,’

a