Detective and mystery stories; Mackinac Island (Mich. : Island) -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
Ah, well, many of us know the sorrow. A daughter's love for a kind
father is a peculiarly dependent, clinging affection; it is mixed with
the careless happiness of childhood, which can never come again. Into
the father's grave the daughter, sometimes a gray-haired woman, lays
away forever the little pet names and memories which to all the rest of
the world are but foolishness. Even though happy in her woman's lot, she
weeps convulsively here for a while with a sorrow that nothing can
comfort; no other love so protecting and unselfish will ever be hers
again.
Anne was crushed by her grief; it seemed to those who watched her that
she revealed a new nature in her sorrow. Dr. Gaston and Père Michaux
spoke of it to each other, but could find little to say to the girl
herself; she had, as it were, drifted beyond their reach, far out on an
unknown sea. They prayed for her, and went silently away, only to come
back within the hour and meet again on the threshold, recognizing each
other's errand. They were troubled by the change in this young creature,
upon whom they had all, in a certain way, depended. Singularly enough,
Miss Lois did not seem to appreciate Anne's condition: she was suffering
too deeply herself. The whole of her repressed nature was in revolt. But
faithful to the unconscious secret of her life, she still thought the
wild pain of her heart was "sorrow for a friend."
She went about as usual, attending to household tasks for both homes.
She was unchanged, yet totally changed. There was a new tension about
her mouth, and an unwonted silence, but her hands were as busy as ever.
Days had passed after the funeral before she began to perceive, even
slightly, the broken condition of Anne. The girl herself was the first
to come back to the present, in the necessity for asking one of those
sad questions which often raise their heads as soon as the coffin is
borne away. "Miss Lois, there are bills to be paid, and I have no money.
Do you know anything of our real income?"
The old habits of the elder woman stirred a little; but she answered,
vaguely, "No."
"We must look through dear papa's papers," said Anne, her voice breaking
as she spoke the name. "He received few letters, none at all lately;
whatever he had, then, must be here."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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