weeks. During one of these flying visits, the disease, as so often happens in consumption, appeared to take a favourable turn; the alarming symptoms vanished, and hope revived in the hearts of the watchers. Rachel took the opportunity to go and see Sarah, who was confined by some temporary indisposition to her own lodgings. Several friends were assembled in the room, and all, feeling the tension of the last few days relaxed, began to chat and laugh, the fun, as usual, being led by Rachel. "In the midst of their gaiety, Rose, the maid, rushed into the room. A fit of coughing had supervened; the patient was in great danger; the doctor desired Mademoiselle Rachel's immediate presence." Rising with the bound of a wounded tigress, the young girl seemed to seek, bewildered, some cause for the blow that fell thus unexpectedly. Her eye lighted on a rosary blessed by the Pope, which she had worn as a bracelet ever since her visit to Rome. She had attached a talismanic virtue to the beads. Now she tore them from her arm, and dashed them to the ground, saying frantically, "It is this fatal gift that has entailed this curse upon me!" and rushed from the room. Hardly was she in time to find her sister alive. On the 23rd June the body was brought back to Paris.
There is a rite among the Jews denominated the "pardon." Before the dead are buried, the relatives, one after the other, enter the room where the corpse lies, and, going up to it, call out the name several times, and invoke forgiveness for any injustice or wrong they may have been guilty of towards the deceased when living, ending with the repetition three times of the word, "Pardon! pardon! pardon!" When it came to Sarah's turn, the consciousness of her many shortcomings rushed over her with such force, that she
