The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 10, No. 279, October 20, 1827Various
History
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 10, No. 279, October 20, 1827
Various
Popular literature -- Great Britain -- Periodicals
I assured her she should write the next day; but I positively forbad
such an exertion at present. She yielded; she was indeed in no condition
for writing. Her mind seemed in an unnatural state; and I was by no
means sure that she had given a correct account of herself. I wrote to
her grandfather, on the supposition that she had; and was quite
satisfied when, in the evening, she gave me, in few words, her family
history. She had been relieved, though exhausted, by tears; and her mind
was calm and rational. She was indeed the last of her family. Her mother
had died a few weeks before, after a lingering illness; and the sole
surviving brother and sister had been prevailed on to take this tour,
to recruit their strength and spirits, after their long watching and
anxiety. They were always, as I discovered, bound together by the
strongest affection; and now that they had been made by circumstances
all in all to each other, they were thus separated! Will not my readers
excuse my attempting to describe such grief as her's must have been?
Her grandfather arrived on the earliest possible day. He was old, and
had some infirmities; but his health was not, as he assured us, at all
injured by his hurried and painful journey. Nothing could be more tender
than his kindness to his charge; though he was, perhaps, too far
advanced in this life, and too near another, to feel the pressure of
this kind of sorrow, as a younger or weaker mind would have done.
I could not help indulging in much painful conjecture as to the fate of
this young creature, when she should lose her last remaining stay: a
period which could not be far distant. But on this point I obtained some
satisfaction before her departure.
A few days before she left me, a gentleman arrived at the inn, and came
immediately to my cottage. She introduced him to me as "a friend." No
one said what kind of a friend he was; but I could entertain no doubt
that he was one who would supply the place of her brother to her.
"Her mind will not be left without a keeper," thought I, as I saw them
direct their steps to the brother's grave. "Thank God, her grandfather
is not her only remaining stay!"
They quitted the place together; and many a sympathizing heart did they
leave behind them--by many an anxious wish and prayer were they
followed. The last promise required from me was, that I would see that
the grave of her brother was respected. What a pang did it cost her to
leave that grave?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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