Blind -- Fiction; Guardian and ward -- Fiction; Love stories; Marriage -- Fiction; Mental illness -- Fiction
Even the servants commented upon the change in Nina, who appeared
so natural and lady-like, that once there darted across Arthur's
mind the question, "what if her reason SHOULD be restored! I will
do right, Heaven helping me," he moaned mentally, for well he knew
that Nina sane would require of him far different treatment from
what Nina crazy did. It was late that night when they parted, he
to his lonely room where for hours he paced the floor with
feverish disquiet, while Edith went from choice with Nina to the
DEN, determined to share her single bed, and smiling at her own
foolishness when once a shadow of fear crept into her heart. How
could she be afraid of the gentle creature, who, in her snowy
night dress, with her golden hair falling about her face and neck,
looked like some beautiful angel flitting about the room,
pretending to arrange this and that, casting half bashful glances
at Edith, who was longer in disrobing and at last, as if summoning
all her courage for the act, stepping behind the thin lace window
curtains, which she drew around her, saying softly, "don't look at
me, Miggie, will you, 'cause I'm going to pray."
Instantly the brush which Edith held was stayed amid her raven
hair, and the hot tears rained over her face as she listened to
that prayer, that God would keep Nina from TEARING any more, and
not let Arthur cry, but make it all come right some time with him
and Miggie, too. Then followed that simple petition, "now I lay me
down to sleep," learned at the mother's knee by so many thousand
children whose graves like hillocks in the church-yard lie, and
when she arose and came from behind the gauzy screen where she
fancied she had been hidden from view, Edith was not wrong in
thinking that something like the glory of Heaven shone upon her
pure white brow. All dread of her was gone, and when Sophy came
in, offering to sleep upon the floor as was her usual custom, she
promptly declined, for she would rather be alone with Nina.
Edith had never been intimate with any girl of her own age, and to
her it was a happiness entirely new, she nestling down in the
narrow bed with a loved companion whose arms wound themselves
caressingly around her neck, and whose lips touched hers many
times, whispering, "Bless you, Miggie, bless you, precious sister,
you can't begin to guess how much I love you. Neither can I tell
you. Why, it would take me till morning."
It became rather tiresome after a time being kept awake, and
fearing lest she WOULD talk till morning, Edith said to her,
"I shall go home if you are not more quiet."
There was something in Edith's voice which prompted the crazy girl
to obey, and with one more assurance of love she turned to her
pillow, and Edith knew by her soft, regular breathing, that her
troubles were forgotten.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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