A Widow's Tale, and Other StoriesOliphant, Mrs. (Margaret)
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A Widow's Tale, and Other Stories
Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret)
Fiction; Short stories
But she was not safe even in her house, for nurse also had been her
confidant, and had a half right to ask, an undoubted right to look. Her
eyes when they flashed upon the name of Fitzroy in Nelly's telegram were
terrible. Well-trained woman as she was, she raised those eyes
instinctively to Nelly's face with a question in them before which
Nelly's, hot with fever yet dim with tears, fell. Oh, if she had said
nothing, if she had but kept the whole story to herself! But that had
been impossible--he had made it impossible. When she had confided the
telegram to nurse she gave instructions that she was not to be
disturbed, and lay, with her blinds down, in the darkened room,
trembling lest Mrs Glynn should force the _consigne_, and find the way
to her bedside in spite of all precautions. It was bad enough to be
questioned when she had nothing to reply; what would it be when her
heart and mind were so full? Nelly lay there in the dark the whole day
with her troubled thoughts. In an hour or two nurse came back, bringing
the children from their walk, and told her mistress that they had walked
as far as Deanham, a little neighbouring village, and that she had sent
the telegram from that office, which she hoped would not matter. It
mattered only so far as to send a fiery dart through Mrs Brunton, who
divined at once that this was done to save her--that no local telegraph
clerk might be able to betray the fact of her communication with
Fitzroy. And Mrs Glynn called, and was repulsed, not without difficulty,
and left her love, and a promise--which was to Nelly as a threat--of
calling early to-morrow. And once more there came the night when all was
silent, when there was no one even to look a question, when Nelly was
left alone again to battle with her thoughts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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