Brothers -- Fiction; Love stories; Triangles (Interpersonal relations) -- Fiction
At his desire she had refrained from entering Isabel's death-chamber. At
his desire she was to leave that day for the Dower House that was to be
their home. Biddy would accompany her thither. The place was ready for
occupation, for by Isabel's wish the work had gone on, though both she
and Scott had known that they would never share a home there. It almost
seemed as if she had foreseen the fulfilment of her earnest wish. And
here Dinah was to await her husband.
"I won't come to you till the funeral is over," he said to her. "I must
be with Eustace. You won't be unhappy?"
No, she would not be unhappy. She had never been so near to Death before,
but she was neither frightened nor dismayed. She stood in the shadow
indeed, but she looked forth from it over a world of such sunshine as
filled her heart with quivering gladness.
He did not want her to attend the funeral at Willowmount, would not, if
he could help it, suffer her so much as to see the trappings of woe; and
in this Dinah acquiesced also, comprehending fully the motive that
underlay his wish. She knew that the earthly formalities, though they
had to be faced, were to Scott something of the nature of a grim farce in
which, while he could not escape it himself, he was determined that she
should take no part. He was not mourning for Isabel. He would not pretend
to mourn. Her death was to him but as the opening wide of a prison-door
to one who had long lain captive, pining for liberty. He would follow the
poor worn body to its grave rather with thanksgiving than with grief. And
realizing so well that this was his inevitable feeling, even as in a
smaller degree it had become her own, Dinah agreed without demur to his
wish to spare her all the jarring details, the travesty of mourning, that
could not fail to strike a false chord in her soul.
It was well for her that she had Biddy to think of. The old woman was
pathetically eager to serve her. She had in fact attached herself to
Dinah in a fashion that went to her heart. It was Miss Isabel's wish that
she should take care of her, she told her tremulously, and Dinah, knew
that it had been equally her friend's wish that she should care for
Biddy.
And Biddy was very good. Probably in accordance with Scott's desire, she
made a great effort to throw off all gloom, and undoubtedly her own sense
of loss and bereavement was greatly lessened by the consciousness of
Dinah's need of her.
"Time enough to weep later," she told herself, as she lay down in the
room adjoining Dinah's on that first night in the Dower House. "She'll
not be wanting old Biddy when Master Scott comes to her."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account