The Cameron pride; or, purified by suffering : $b A novelHolmes, Mary Jane
General
The Cameron pride; or, purified by suffering : $b A novel
Holmes, Mary Jane
American fiction -- 19th century
“Yes, do,” Katy replied, adjusting her dress and trying to arrange the
matted curls, which were finally confined in a net until Esther’s more
practiced hands were ready to attack them, then sending Esther from the
room Katy took the picture of Genevra from the table where Wilford had
laid it.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE EFFECT.
Very cautiously the lid was opened, and a lock of soft brown hair fell
out, clinging to Katy’s hand and making her shudder as she shook off the
silken tress and remembered that the head it once adorned was lying in
St. Mary’s churchyard, where the English daisies grew.
“She had pretty hair,” she thought; “darker, richer than mine,” and into
Katy’s heart there crept a feeling akin to jealousy, lest Genevra had
been fairer than herself, as well as better loved. “I won’t be foolish
any longer,” she said, and turning resolutely to the light, she opened
the lid again and saw Genevra Lambert, starting quickly, then looking
again more closely—then, with a gasp, panting for breath; while like
lightning flashes the past came rushing over her, as, with her eyes
fixed upon that picture, she tried to whisper, “_It is—it is!_”
She could not then say whom, for if she were right in her belief,
Genevra was not dead. There were no daisies growing on her grave, for
she still walked the earth a living woman, whom Katy knew so
well—_Marian Hazelton_. That was the name Katy could not speak, as, with
the blood curdling in her veins and freezing about her heart, she sat
comparing the face she remembered so well with the one before her. In
some points they were unlike, for thirteen years had slightly marred the
youthful contour of the face she knew once—had sharpened the features
and thinned the abundant hair; but still there could be no mistake. The
eyes, the brow, the smile, the nose, all were the same, and with a pang
bitterer than she yet had felt, poor Katy fell upon her face and asked
that she might die. In her utter ignorance of law, she fancied that if
Genevra were alive, she had no right to Wilford’s name—no right to be
his wife—especially as the sin for which Genevra was divorced had by her
never been committed, and burning tears of bitter shame ran down her
cheeks as she whispered, “‘What God has joined together let no man put
asunder,’ Those are God’s words, and how dare the world act otherwise?
she _is_ his wife, and I—oh! I don’t know what I am!” and on the carpet
where she was kneeling Katy writhed in agony as she tried to think what
she must do. Not stay there—she could not do that now—not, at least,
until she knew for sure that she was Wilford’s wife, in spite of
Genevra’s living. “Oh, if there was only some one to advise me—some one
who knew and would tell me what was right,” Katy moaned, feeling herself
inadequate to meet the dark hour alone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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