Alabama -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Fiction; Domestic fiction; War stories
"If ever a woman had a worshipper, you certainly possess one in Huldah
Reed. It would be amusing, if it were not touching, to see her bending
in ecstasy over everything you write; over every notice of you that
meets her eye. She regards you as her model in all respects. You would
be surprised at the rapidity with which she acquires knowledge. She is
a pet of St. Elmo's, and repays his care and kindness with a devotion
that makes people stare; for you know my son is regarded as an ogre,
and the child's affection for him seems incomprehensible to those who
only see the rough surface of his character. She never saw a frown on
his face or heard a harsh word from him, for he is strangely tender in
his treatment of the little thing. Sometimes it makes me start when I
hear her merry laugh ringing through the house, for the sound carries
me far back into the past, when my own children romped and shouted at
Le Bocage. You were always a quiet, demure, and rather solemn child;
but this Huldah is a gay little sprite. St. Elmo is so astonishingly
patient with her, that Estelle accuses him of being in his dotage. Oh,
Edna! it would make you glad to see my son and that orphan child
sitting together reading the Bible. Last week I found them in the
library; she was fast asleep with her head on his knee, and he sat with
his open Bible in his hand. He is so changed in his manner that you
would scarcely know him, and oh! I am so happy and so grateful, I can
never thank God sufficiently for the blessing!"
Mrs. Murray sobbed, and Edna bent her own head lower in her palms.
For some seconds both were silent. Mrs. Murray seated herself close to
the governess, and clasped her arms around her.
"Edna, why did you not tell me all? Why did you leave me to find out by
accident that which should have been confided to me?"
The girl trembled, and a fiery spot burned on her cheeks as she pressed
her forehead against Mrs. Murray's bosom, and said hastily:
"To what do you allude?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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