Family Pride; Or, Purified by SufferingHolmes, Mary Jane
General
Family Pride; Or, Purified by Suffering
Holmes, Mary Jane
American fiction; Dime novels
"Do you remember any of the names upon the stones? Perhaps I may know
them?" Marian asked; but Katy did not remember any, or if she did, it
was not "Genevra Lambert, aged twenty-two." And so Marian asked her no
more questions concerning St. Mary's, at Alnwick, but talked instead of
London and other places, until three hours went by, and down in the
street the coachman chafed and fretted at the long delay, wandering what
kept his mistress in that neighborhood so long. Had she friends, or had
she come on some errand of mercy? The latter most likely, he concluded,
and so his face was not quite so cross when Katy at last appeared,
looking at her watch and exclaiming at the lateness of the hour. But
when, as they turned into the avenue, Katy called to him to stop,
bidding him drive back, as she had forgotten something, he showed
unmistakable signs of irritation, but nevertheless obeyed, and Katy was
soon mounting a second time to the fourth story of No. ----, where Marian
Hazelton knelt upon the floor, her head resting upon the costly fabrics
and her frame quivering with the anguish of the sobs which reached
Katy's ear even before she opened the unbolted door.
"What is it, Marian?" she asked, in great distress, while Marian,
struggling to her feet, remained for a moment speechless.
She had not expected Katy to return, else she had never given way as she
did, calling on her God to help her bear what she now knew she was not
prepared to bear. She had thought the heart struggle conquered, and that
she could calmly look upon Wilford Cameron's wife; but the sight of
Katy, together with the errand on which she came, had unnerved her, and
she wept bitterly in her desolation, until Katy's reappearance startled
her from her position on the floor, making her stammer out some excuse
about "homesickness and the seeing Katy bringing back the past."
Very lovingly Katy tried to comfort her, putting into her manner just
enough of pretty patronage to amuse without annoying Marian, who soon
grew calm, and then listened while Katy told why she returned. She
feared she had talked too much of her own affairs--too much of his
folks, who, after all, were nice, kind people, and she came to take
it back, asking Marian never to speak of it, as it might get to them
indirectly, and Wilford would be angry.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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