Once, twice, during the next hour, a low, anguished voice filled the
room; but just as dawn came, Parpon stooped and tenderly wiped a soft
moisture from the face, lying so quiet and peaceful now against the
pillow.
"She breathes easy, poor pretty bird!" said the old woman gently.
"She'll never see again?" asked Parpon mournfully. "Never a thing while
she lives," was the whispered reply.
"But she has her life," said the dwarf; "she wished it so."
"What's the good!" The old woman had divined why Elise had wanted to
live.
The dwarf did not answer. His eyes wandered about abstractedly, and fell
again upon Elise's mother sleeping, unconscious of the awful peril
passed, and the painful salvation come to her daughter.
The blue-grey light of morning showed under the edge of the closed
window-blind. In the room day was mingling incongruously with night, for
the candle looked sickly, and the aged crone's face was of a leaden
colour, lighted by the piercing eyes that brooded hungrily on her
son--her only son: the dwarf had told her of Gabriel's death.
Parpon opened the door and went out. Day was spreading over the drowsy
landscape.
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