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SHIRLEY.

Nunnely too, with Mr. Hall: you should be on your guard: temerity is not wise."

"That reminds me, Miss Keeldar, that perhaps you had better not enter this chamber, or come near this couch. I do not believe my illness is infectious: I scarcely fear (with a sort of smile) you will take it; but why should you run even the shadow of a risk? Leave me."

"Patience: I will go soon; but I should like to do something for you before I depart—any little service——"

"They will miss you below."

"No, the gentlemen are still at table."

"They will not linger long: Sir Philip Nunnely is no wine-bibber, and I hear him just now pass from the dining-room to the drawing-room."

"It is a servant."

"It is Sir Philip, I know his step."

"Your hearing is acute."

"It is never dull, and the sense seems sharpened at present. Sir Philip was here to tea last night. I heard you sing to him some song which he had brought you. I heard him, when he took his departure at eleven o'clock, call you out on to the pavement, to look at the evening star."

"You must be nervously sensitive."

"I heard him kiss your hand."

"Impossible!"

"No; my chamber is over the hall, the window just above the front door; the sash was a little