"What is it?" she asked in a husky whisper. "Why are you so glad,
Maggie? Why can you be good now?"
"Because I love Geoffrey Hammond," answered Maggie; "I love him with
all my heart, all my life, all my strength, and he loves me. He has
asked me to be his wife."
Maggie paused. She expected to feel Annabel's arms round her neck; she
waited impatiently for this last crowning moment of bliss. Her own
happiness caused her to lower her eyes; her joy was so dazzling that
for a moment she felt she must shade their brilliance even from
Annabel's gaze.
Instead of the pressure of loving arms, however, and the warm kiss of
sympathy, there came a low cry from the lips of the sick girl. She
made an effort to say something, but words failed her: the next moment
she was unconscious. Maggie rushed to the bell and gave an alarm,
which brought Miss Heath and one or two servants to the room.
A doctor was speedily sent for, and Maggie Oliphant was banished from
the room. She never saw Annabel Lee again. That night the sick girl
was removed to the hospital, which was in a building apart from the
halls, and two days afterward she was dead.
Typhus fever was raging at Kingsdene at this time, and Annabel Lee had
taken it in its most virulent form.
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