A Double Knot

"Mother!" There was no reply, and once again rose from the bed in the prettily-furnished room the same word-"Mother!" The wild, appealing, anguished cry of offspring to parent, seeming to ask for help-protection-forgiveness-the tenderness of the mother-heart to its young, and still there was no answer. The speaker struggled up so that she rested on her elbow, the heavy dark nut-brown hair fell in long clusters on her soft white neck and bosom; her large hazel eyes looked wild and dilated; and her fair young face deathly pale, as, with quivering white lips, she cried once more: