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
Morris knew better, and as Katy still continued to move her head as if
something were really hurting her, he passed his hand under her pillow
and drew out the picture she must have kept near her as long as her
consciousness remained. He knew it was Genevra’s picture, and was about
to lay it away, when the cover dropped into his hand, and his eye fell
upon a face which was not new to him, while an involuntary exclamation
of surprise escaped him, as Katy’s assertion that Genevra was living was
thus fully confirmed. Marian had not changed past recognition since her
early girlhood, and Morris knew the likeness at once, pitying Katy more
than he had pitied her yet, as he remembered how closely Marian Hazelton
had been interwoven with her married life, and the life of the little
child which had borne her name.
“What is that?” Mrs. Cameron asked, and Morris passed the case to her,
saying, “A picture which was under Katy’s pillow.”
Morris did not look at Mrs. Cameron, but tried to busy himself with the
medicines upon the stand, while she too recognized Genevra Lambert,
wondering how it came in Katy’s possession and how much she knew of
Wilford’s secret.
“She must have been rummaging,” she thought, and then as she remembered
what Esther had said about her mistress appearing sick and unhappy, when
her husband left home, she repaired to the parlor and summoning Esther
to her presence, asked her again, “When she first observed traces of
indisposition in Mrs. Cameron.”
“When she came home from that dinner at your house. She was just as pale
as death, and her teeth fairly chattered as I took off her things.”
“Dinner? What dinner?” Mrs. Cameron asked, and Esther replied, “Why, the
night Mr. Wilford went away or was to go. She changed her mind about
meeting him at your house, and said she meant to surprise him. But she
came home before Mr. Cameron, looking like a ghost, and saying she was
sick. It’s my opinion something she ate at dinner hurt her.”
“Very likely, yes. You can go now,” Mrs. Cameron said, and Esther
departed, never dreaming how much light she had inadvertently thrown
upon the mystery.
“She must have been in the library and heard all we said,” Mrs. Cameron
thought, as she nervously twisted the fringe of her breakfast shawl. “I
remember we talked of Genevra, and that we both heard a strange sound
from some quarter, but thought it came from the kitchen. That was Katy.
She was there all the time and let herself quietly out of the house. I
wonder does Wilford know,” and then there came over her an intense
desire for Wilford to come home—a desire which was not lessened when she
returned to Katy’s room and heard her talking of Genevra and the grave
at St. Mary’s “where nobody was buried.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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