American fiction -- 19th century; Dime novels; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Upper class -- Fiction
He was her only grandson, and her heart was very sore and full of pain;
and, laying aside her brown silk dress, which she had thought to wear at
Anna’s wedding, she clothed herself in deepest black, and thought and
talked of nothing but her boy, her Phil, “drownded in the Ingies.”
As for Anna, she cried herself into a sick headache the first day, and
declined to see the major, when he called. But she received him the next
day, and was a good deal comforted by the beautiful necklace and pendant
of onyx and pearls he brought to her with a view to assuage her grief,
which was not very lasting. She liked Phil well enough, and his sudden
death was a great shock to her, but she liked the major better, or,
rather, she liked the costly presents he made her, and the position he
would give her when she became his wife, as she expected to do in a few
weeks. The grand wedding, however, which she was intending to have, must
now be given up; and this, perhaps, added a little to her sorrow and
regret for Phil’s untimely end.
Outside of his family, too, there was deep mourning for the young man
who had been so popular with every one, and of whom it was said that he
had not a single enemy. But nowhere was there a heart so full of pain
and remorse as at Hetherton Place where Queenie shut herself in her room
and refused to see any one except Margery and Pierre.
She had read with a fresh burst of anguish Phil’s letter written her
from Madras—a letter full of tenderness and love, showing how he kept
her still in his heart as the dearest, sweetest memory of his life, and
at the close containing a few words of passionate entreaty that she
would overcome her scruples, and bid him come back to her by and by.
“Not now,” he wrote, “not while I am the shiftless, aimless block you
were right to despise, but after I have shown that there is something in
me besides a love of indolence and feminine occupations, will you
reconsider, Queenie, and see if you cannot love me?”
“Yes, Phil, oh, Phil!” Queenie cried, as she finished reading this
letter, which she covered with her kisses, and then kept under her
pillow where she could find it readily when the fancy took her to read
it.
Everything Phil had given her or helped to make, was brought to her
chamber where she could see it, for she refused to go down stairs, but
stayed constantly in her own room, sometimes pacing restlessly to and
fro, but often lying down with her face to the wall and her eyes open
day and night, for she could neither sleep nor cry, and her head seemed
bursting with its pressure of blood and pain.
“If I _could_ cry,” she said once to Margery, as she pressed her hands
to her throbbing temples, “it would loosen the tightness in my throat
and about my heart, but I cannot, and I am so tired, and sick, and
faint, I shall never cry again or sleep.”
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