Coralie: Everyday Life Library No. 2Brame, Charlotte M.
General
Coralie: Everyday Life Library No. 2
Brame, Charlotte M.
Fiction
I can never forget it--the wild, bitter anguish of that unhappy woman,
how she wept, how she tore her hair, how she called her child back by
every tender name a mother's love could invent.
It was better, the doctor said, that the first paroxysm of grief should
have full vent. All attempts at comfort and consolation were unavailing.
I raised her from the ground, and when she saw my face she cried:
"Oh, Edgar! Edgar! it is my just punishment!"
I did my best to console her. I told her that her little child would be
better off in heaven than were he master of fifty Crown Ansteys. But I
soon found that my words fell on deaf ears; she was unconscious.
"I do not like the look of Mrs. Trevelyan," said the doctor. "I should
not be surprised to find that she has caught the fever herself. If so,
in her present state of agitation, it will go hard with her."
He was right; before sunset Coralie lay in the fierce clutches of the
fever, insensible to everything.
I do not like dwelling on this part of the story; it is so long, long
since it all happened, but the memory of it stings like a sharp pain.
Clare came to nurse her, and everything that human science and skill
could suggest was done to save her. It was all in vain.
We buried the little child on the Tuesday morning, when the sun was
shining and the birds were singing in the trees, and on the Saturday
they told us his mother could not live.
It was early on the dawn of the Sunday morning when they sent for me.
She was dying, and wished to speak to me.
I went into her room. Clare knelt by her side. She turned her white face
to me with a smile.
"Edgar," she said, "I am glad you have come. I want to--to die in your
arms. Bend down to me," she whispered. "I want to speak to you. Will you
forgive me? I can see now how wrong I was, how wicked to love you so
much, and how wicked to tell you so. Will you forgive me, and now that I
am dying say one kind word to me, and tell me you can respect me in
death?"
I pillowed that dying head on my arm, and told her I should only
remember of her what had been kind and good.
"You will only remember that I loved you, Edgar, not that I was
unwomanly and wicked?"
"I will forget everything, except that you were my dear cousin and dear
friend."
"You will marry Agatha," she said, faintly, "and bring her home here. I
hope you will be happy; but, oh! Edgar--Edgar--when she is your wife,
and you are so happy together, you will not forget me; you will stroll
out sometimes when the dew is falling to look at my grave and say, 'Poor
Coralie! how well she loved me--so well--so dearly!' You will do that,
Edgar?"
My tears were falling warm and fast on her face.
"Are these your tears? Then you care a little for me. Ah, then, I am
willing to die!"
And so, with her head pillowed on my arm, and a smile on her lips, she
died.
We buried her by the side of Miles Trevelyan. After life's fitful fever
she sleeps well.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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