Why do you ask?'
"'Jeanie, your voice was always very much like mine--do you remember,
they used to mistake us at home. Jeanie, call out for me--just till--till
he's a bit better; promise me.'
"They had loved each other, those two, more than is common among sisters.
Jeanie could not answer, but she pressed her sister closer in her arms,
and the other was satisfied.
"Then, drawing all her little stock of life together for one final
effort, the child raised herself in her sister's arms.
"'Good-night, Jack,' she called out, loud and clear enough to be heard
through the closed door.
"'Good-night, little wife,' he cried back, cheerily; 'are you all right?'
"'Yes, dear. Good-night.'
"Her little, worn-out frame dropped back upon the bed, and the next thing
I remember is snatching up a pillow, and holding it tight-pressed against
Jeanie's face for fear the sound of her sobs should penetrate into the
next room; and afterwards we both got out, somehow, by the other door,
and rushed downstairs, and clung to each other in the back kitchen.
"How we two women managed to keep up the deceit, as, for three whole
days, we did, I shall never myself know. Jeanie sat in the room where
her dead sister, from its head to its sticking-up feet, lay outlined
under the white sheet; and I stayed beside the living man, and told lies
and acted lies, till I took a joy in them, and had to guard against the
danger of over-elaborating them.
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